Organic thermometry for chondritic parent bodies

A unique spectroscopic feature has been identified in a study of twenty-five different samples of meteoritic insoluble organic matter (IOM) spanning multiple chemical classes, groups, and petrologic types, using carbon X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES) spectroscopy. The intensity of this feature, a 1s − σ⁎ exciton, appears to provide a precise measure of parent body metamorphism. The intensity of this exciton is also shown to correlate well with a large negative paramagnetic shift observed through solid state 13C NMR. Experiments reveal that upon heating primitive IOM is transformed into material that is indistinguishable from that in thermally processed chondrites, including the development of the 1s − σ⁎ exciton. A thermo-kinetic expression is derived from the experimental data that allows the intensity of the 1s − σ⁎ exciton to be used to estimated the effective temperature integrated over time. A good correlation is observed between the intensity of the 1s − σ⁎ exciton and previously published microRaman spectral data. These data provide a self-consistent organic derived temperature scale for the purpose of calibrating Raman based thermometric expressions.