SEARCH FOR EXTRACTABLE FULLERENES IN CLAYS FROM THE CRETACEOUS-TERTIARY BOUNDARY OF THE WOODSIDE CREEK AND FLAXBOURNE RIVER SITES, NEW-ZEALAND

When fullerenes were first discovered to form spontaneously in condens ing carbon vapors (KROTO et al., 1985), it was suggested that they mig ht be widely distributed in the Universe. Searches for fullerenes in m eteorites (see DEVRIES et al., 1993) were unsuccessful, but C60 and C7 0 were reported to occur on Earth in samples of shungite, a meta-anthr acite from a deposit near Shunga, Russia (BUSECK et al., 1992), and in ''fulgurite'', a substance formed when lightning strikes certain soil s or rocks (DALY et al., 1993). The occurrence of fullerenes in shungi te is particularly surprising since fullerene synthesis in the laborat ory has always involved gas phase chemistry at temperatures over 1000- degrees-C. Such conditions may be attained during lightning strikes, b ut shungite is believed to have formed from carbonaceous material cree ping into fissures of a Precambrian rock which metamorphosed under ext reme pressures. If the original carbonaceous material did not already contain fullerenes perhaps from wildfires, they must have formed durin g the metamorphism by as yet unknown solid- or liquid-phase mechanisms .