A Hydrated Clast in the Mokoia CV3 Carbonaceous Chondrite: Evidence for Intensive Aqueous Alteration in the CV Parent Body

Abstract We report the discovery of a highly hydrated clast in the Mokoia CV3 carbonaceous chondrite that contains eight chondrules and one amoeboid olivine inclusion (AOI), embedded in a matrix dominated by hydrous phyllosilicates. Anhydrous silicates in the chondrules and AOI were extensively replaced by phyllosilicates. The matrix has a composition intermediate between saponite and serpentine and contains abundant framboidal magnetite, being similar to the matrices of the CI chondrites. The mineralogy and texture indicate that the clast resulted from intensive aqueous alteration of a precursor equivalent to the host Mokoia meteorite, and it can be regarded as the CV2-type lithology. The results indicate that there was in fact an extremely wet region within the Mokoia parent body and that this clast escaped subsequent thermal metamorphism. This clast reveals abundant evidence of progressive and dynamic aqueous alteration processes. The chondrules were replaced inward from their margins, and the alteration products were disaggregated and mixed into the matrix; as a result, the chondrules increasingly became smaller in size and irregular in shape. Some of the chondrules were separated into pieces. The results indicate that a major proportion of the matrix materials were produced by the alteration of chondrules and inclusions and that there was a stage in which the alteration products and the original matrix material were extensively and uniformly mixed together. The presence of the clast supports a previously proposed model, which suggests that hydrated chondrules, inclusions, and the rims surrounding them in the host Mokoia chondrite are clasts produced by brecciation within a wet region of the parent body and that they were subsequently transported and incorporated into the dry matrix.