Using ArcGIS for correlating multi-technique micro-spatial analytical data: A case study of early solar system carbonates in a carbonaceous chondrite.

Meteorites are rare and valuable extraterrestrial materials that are typically studied using multiple micro- and nanoanalytical techniques such as SEM, EPMA, SIMS, SXRF and FIB/TEM. Each of these techniques is frequently used to study the same thin section in detail. Management of the significant amounts of spatial and analytical data obtained at various scales from the millimeter to nanometer-scales over a ~3 cm2 thin section is a major challenge. Here we demonstrate that a geographical information system, or GIS, typically used for much larger scale spatial data manipulation can be used equally successfully to store and analyze spatially correlated petrographic and mineralogical data. The advantages of using GIS techniques at the microscale are multifold. For example, querying various types of analytical data can be made with ease by the researcher. Furthermore, posted geodatabase meteorite data can be analyzed by other researchers concurrently or years after a project has been completed. This facilitates comparisons between other meteorite samples of differing classification, within a classification, or samples of the same meteorite. Here we demonstrate the application of a GIS to a correlate data obtained from a thin section of the ALH84051 CM1 meteorite, a carbonaceous chondrite that has experienced extensive aqueous alteration. Mosaiced images obtained by optical microscopy of the entire thin section are used as a base "map" and are overlain with SEM and CL images obtained at different magnifications, compositional data (EPMA), and other spatial data. The overall objectives of this study are to gain insights into the processes of aqueous alteration using carbonate mineral assemblages, morphology, abundance, and chemical composition (major, minor and trace elements). Future work will also include Mn-Cr chronometry and oxygen isotopic analysis using SIMS to examine carbonate emplacement and fluid evolution within the meteorite parent body.