I‐Xe ages of Campo del Cielo silicates as a record of the complex early history of the IAB parent body

Using in situ laser analyses of a polished thin section from the IAB iron meteorite Campo del Cielo, we identified two silicate grains rich in radiogenic Xe-129*, Cr-diopside, and oligoclase, excavated them from the metal, and irradiated them with thermal neutrons for I-Xe dating. The release profiles of Xe-129* and Xe-128* are consistent with these silicates being diopside and oligoclase, with activation energies, estimated using Arrhenius plots, of approximate to 201 and approximate to 171kcalmole(-1), respectively. The 4556.4 +/- 0.4Ma absolute I-Xe age of the more refractory diopside is younger than the 4558.0 +/- 0.7Ma I-Xe age of the less refractory oligoclase. We suggest that separate impact events at different locations and depths on a porous initial chondritic IAB parent body led to the removal of the melt and recrystallization of diopside and oligoclase at the times reflected by their respective I-Xe ages. The diopside and oligoclase grains were later brought into the studied inclusion by a larger scale catastrophic collision that caused breakup and reassembly of the debris, but did not reset the I-Xe ages dating the first events. The metal melt most probably was <1250 degrees C when it surrounded studied silicate grains. This reassembly could not have occurred earlier than the I-Xe closure in diopside at 4556.4 +/- 0.4Ma.