Helium, neon, and argon in meteorites: A data collection

Abstract

Noble gases have been measured in meteorites for more than 100 years. The last 50 years have been especially fruitful, with concentration and isotopic compositional analysis of He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe making important contributions to meteorite research. Differently trapped noble gas components are the basis for understanding planetary atmospheres and even different stages of stellar evolution. Noble gases are a valuable tool to detect pairing of meteorite specimens or even to prove whether a rock is a meteorite or not. Noble gas data, however, are distributed over a large number of publications. Sometimes, only concentrations are given for selected isotopes or just a simple derivative quantity is published. We have tried to collect all available measurements of He, Ne, and Ar in meteorites. Here, we present the data in a form that will help easily calculate isotopic or elemental ratios for selected measurements. The present compilation contains all data available as of March 2004.