Search for supernova {sup 60}Fe in the Earth's microfossil record
- Technische Universitaet Muenchen, James Franck Str. 1, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
Approximately 2.8 Myr before the present our planet was subjected to the debris of a supernova explosion. The terrestrial proxy for this event was the discovery of live atoms of {sup 60}Fe in a deep-sea ferromanganese crust. The signature for this supernova event should also reside in magnetite (Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}) microfossils produced by magnetotactic bacteria extant at the time of the Earth-supernova interaction, provided the bacteria preferentially uptake iron from fine-grained iron oxides and ferric hydroxides. Using empirically derived microfossil concentrations in a deep-sea drill core, we deduce a conservative estimate of the {sup 60}Fe fraction as {sup 60}Fe/Fe Almost-Equal-To 3.6 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -15}. This value sits comfortably within the sensitivity limit of present accelerator mass spectrometry capabilities.
- OSTI ID:
- 22075794
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1484, Issue 1; Conference: Conference on origin of matter and evolution of galaxies 2011, Wako (Japan), 14-17 Nov 2011; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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