A surviving pink spinel records an early aluminous melt on the ureilite parent bodyOPEN ACCESS
Yaozhu Li, Phil J.A. McCausland, Roberta L. Flemming, Noriko T. Kita, Carsten Detlefs
Preprint submitted to Earth and Planetary Science Letter, 25 August 2026
- Oxygen isotopes confirm aluminous pink spinel is indigenous to the ureilite parent body
- Triple oxygen isotope data extend the ureilite range to δ18O ∼ 9.7‰
- DFXM reveals three level hierarchy of microstructure within the aluminous spinel
- The preservation of Al-spinel suggests a very early melt in UPB that largely disappeared in the main-group of ureilites
“Ureilites are ultramafic achondrites interpreted as fragments of a differentiated parent body, yet their origin and evolution remain debated because textural equilibrium coexists with chemically primitive compositions. Here we report mineralogical, isotopic, and microstructural observations from polymict ureilite Elephant Moraine (EET) 87720. The sample contains unusually magnesian olivine (Mg# up to 98.7), Ca-poor pyroxene (Wo as low as 1.0), and rare coarse-grained pink aluminous spinel containing 56.4-58.7 wt% Al2O3 and 11.3-11.8 wt% Cr2O3. In situ triple oxygen isotope measurements of spinel and associated forsteritic olivine plot along the ~1-slope Carbonaceous Chondrite Anhydrous Mineral (CCAM) line, consistent with bulk ureilites. The clasts also follow the ureilitic Fe-loss/addition trend, with near-constant chondritic Mn/Mg ratios. These observations demonstrate that the clasts are indigenous to the ureilite parent body and extend the known ureilite oxygen isotope range to delta18O ~9.7 per mil. Three-dimensional dark-field X-ray microscopy reveals a hierarchical deformation microstructure in the spinel, comprising distributed lattice curvature, localized slip-band-like boundaries, and coherent mosaic-domain boundaries, indicating multiscale accommodation of shock-induced crystal-plastic deformation. We propose that the aluminous spinel crystallized from a locally Al-rich, Ca-poor melt under low oxygen fugacity. Al partitioning between coexisting spinel and olivine yields a crystallization temperature of 1318 +/- 43 K, consistent with a thermally elevated parent body. The spinel may therefore preserve a rare crystallization product of an early aluminous melt that has largely disappeared from the ureilite record, providing an archive of early planetary differentiation.”
