Magnetic hysteresis properties and 57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy of iron and stony-iron meteorites: Implications for mineralogy and thermal history

Since the solid matter in our solar system began to assemble 4.57 billion years ago, meteorites have recorded a large range of processes, including metamorphism, melting, irradiation and hypervelocity impacts. These processes as well as solar system magnetic fields can be accessed through the investigation of magnetic properties of meteorites. In this work, we present magnetic hysteresis properties, isothermal remanent magnetization acquisition curves and Fe-57 Mossbauer spectra for nineteen iron and eleven stony-iron meteorites. These data will be the background for a discussion about the thermal and shock history of these meteorites. Although Mossbauer spectroscopy and hysteresis measurements are not able to provide cooling rates like the conventional metallographic method does, we show that the combination of the ordering degree of taenite phase measured by Mossbauer spectroscopy and hysteresis properties are useful for constraining the thermal and shock history of meteorites. In particular, strong shock and the associated thermal event that result in disordering of tetrataenite can be easily identified. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.