We have measured the 13C/12C and 14C/12C ratios in CO2 released by acid etching of the meteorites Zagami and Allan Hills 84001. We use the 14C as a label to identify extraterrestrial carbonate phases, as they will have a low 14C/12C ratio (<∼4% modern terrestrial ratio) compared to recent terrestrial material. The new studies on Allan Hills 84001 confirm previous conclusions that the Fe, Mg‐rich carbonate grains in this meteorite contain carbon with δ13C as high as +45‰. In contrast, the carbon released from Zagami is depleted in 13C with δ13C as low as ∼20‰. We conclude that the isotopic composition of the carbon as carbonate released from acid etching of Zagami is different from the carbonates observed in both Allan Hills 84001 and Nakhla. With the assumption that all of these meteorites sample the surface of Mars, we propose that the Zagami carbonate samples a different carbon reservoir on this planet, such as a magmatic source. With this interpretation, the high δ13C values of carbonate observed in Allan Hills 84001 and Nakhla can be ascribed to a fractionated source compared with the originally light carbon. A likely origin for this 13C‐enriched component is an isotopically heavy Martian atmosphere; however, given the possibility of biological activity involving Allan Hills carbonates, we cannot exclude this as a source of the isotopic fractionation.

[1] Despite the importance of mountainous catchments for providing freshwater resources, especially in semi-arid regions, little is known about key hydrological processes such as mountain block recharge (MBR). Here we implement a data-based method informed by isotopic data to quantify MBR rates using recession flow analysis. We applied our hybrid method in a semi-arid sky island catchment in southern Arizona, United States. Sabino Creek is a 91 km 2 catchment with its sources near the summit of the Santa Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson. Southern Arizona's climate has two distinct wet seasons separated by prolonged dry periods. Winter frontal storms (November -March) provide about 50% of annual precipitation, and summers are dominated by monsoon convective storms from July to September. Isotope analyses of springs and surface water in the Sabino Creek catchment indicate that streamflow during dry periods is derived from groundwater storage in fractured bedrock. Storage-discharge relationships are derived from recession flow analysis to estimate changes in storage during wet periods. To provide reliable estimates, several corrections and improvements to classic base flow recession analysis are considered. These corrections and improvements include adaptive time stepping, data binning, and the choice of storage-discharge functions. Our analysis shows that (1) incorporating adaptive time steps to correct for streamflow measurement errors improves the coefficient of determination, (2) the quantile method is best for streamflow data binning, (3) the choice of the regression model is critical when the stage-discharge function is used to predict changes in bedrock storage beyond the maximum observed flow in the catchment, and (4) the use of daily or night-time hourly streamflow does not affect the form of the storage-discharge relationship but will impact MBR estimates because of differences in the observed range of streamflow in each series.Citation: Ajami, H., P. A. Troch, T. Maddock III, T. Meixner, and C. Eastoe (2011), Quantifying mountain block recharge by means of catchment-scale storage-discharge relationships, Water Resour. Res., 47, W04504,

Abstract— We have measured the 13C/12C and 14C/12C ratios in CO2 released by acid etching of the carbonate‐bearing SNC meteorites Allan Hills 84001 and Nakhla. Most of the C released is strongly enriched in 13C. In 10 out of 12 samples, 15‰ <δ13C < 55‰. Terrestrial values of carbonateδ13C from weathering products are generally between −10 and +10‰. Two leachate samples especially rich in 13C, ALH 84001,27 and Nakhla 25, have elemental Si/Mg ratios much lower than those of the bulk meteorites and 14C activities that are much lower than the values expected for terrestrial carbonates. The former observation indicates that these leachates consist primarily of carbonates and, less likely, phosphates. The latter observation implies that heavy C was introduced not by terrestrial weathering but by extraterrestrial processes. For ALH 84001,121 (sample 27) and Nakhla (BM 1913,26) δ13C = +41‰ and +35‰, respectively. The measured 18O/16O ratios in the leaches are similar: δ18O ∼ 15 ± 5‰, contrasting with 4.2‰ in the bulk silicates. We infer that the C in the carbonates retains an extraterrestrial isotopic signature, but probably not O, due to its ease of isotopic exchange (Cole and Ohmoto, 1986).

No abstract

Coeval shell and charcoal from Santa Catarina State, Brazil, differ systematically in 14C content, indicating a reservoir effect in marine samples. For modern samples (AD 1939–2000) and archeological samples (2500–1595 BP), the mean 14C age difference between marine and atmospheric carbon is 220 ± 20 years, the marine carbon being older. For three samples dated AD 1939–1944, a distinct reservoir correction of 510 ± 10 years is also observed. The ages of archeological shell samples from Jabuticabeira may be corrected by subtracting 220 years from the apparent 14C ages.