Raman spectroscopic study of diamond and graphite in ureilites and the origin of diamonds

• DOI: 10.1111/maps.12007
• Publication Date: 2012-11-09T00:26:11Z
• Authors: Kana NAGASHIMA; Masayuki NARA; Jun‐ichi MATSUDA
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Abstract– We performed micro‐Raman spectroscopic analyses of the carbon vein in five ureilites: Allan Hills (ALH) A77257, Northwest Africa (NWA) 3140, Shişr 007, Yamato 790981 (Y‐790981), and Yamato 791538 (Y‐791538). The graphite peaks showed that the graphite structure in ureilite is well developed, especially compared with the carbonaceous material in carbonaceous chondrite. The domain sizes of the graphite were 45–110 Å. We observed shifts in the diamond peak positions to higher wave numbers with a large full width at half maximum (FWHM), especially for NWA 3140. Although the FWHM of a diamond peak is not a crucial diagnostic test for a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) origin of diamond, the shift of the diamond peaks to higher wave numbers could be a strong indicator that supports the CVD origin as these shifts have only been observed in CVD diamonds. We discuss the origin of diamond from various aspects, and confirm that the CVD model is the most plausible. We conclude that all carbon material (graphite, amorphous carbon, diamond, etc.) condensed on the early condensates in the primitive solar nebula.