Fractionation of Volatile Elements by Heating of Solid Allende: Implications for the Source Material of Earth, Moon, and the Eucrite Parent Body

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Alkali Elements, Allende, Experiments, Heating, Fractionation, Lead, Tin, Volatile Elements

Scientific paper

CI-chondrites have average solar-system abundances of moderately volatile (Na, K, Rb, Sn, etc.) and highly volatile (Cs, Pb, etc.) elements. In most other types of chondrites and in samples from differentiated planetary bodies, these elements are more or less depleted relative to CI chondrites. Volatile-element fractionation occurred either by evaporation or incomplete condensation [1]. Recent data on the isotopic composition of K indicate that depletion of volatiles did not occur by evaporation from a melt of CI-chondritic composition [2]. Evaporative loss from a solid, however, would not necessarily lead to isotopic fractionation of K in the residue [e.g., 3]. In order to study loss of volatile elements from solids, we performed a series of heating experiments under variable oxygen fugacities at temperatures of 1050 degrees C to 1300 degrees C. Residues were analyzed by INAA [4]. We report here additional analyses (K, Rb, Cs, Sn, Pb) of these residues by isotope dilution-SSMS. Results (including Na data from INAA) are shown in Fig. 1. Results at other oxygen fugacities are similar, i.e., there is no strong dependence on fO2, contrary to the results for Au, As, and Zn [4]. Elements are arranged in the order of decreasing condensation temperatures. Depletions increase with increasing temperature and, at least for the 1050 degrees C experiment, with decreasing condensation temperature. The CI- normalized Allende pattern has no strong depletions of Cs and Pb, unlike the experimental results, indicating that evaporation from a solid cannot produce patterns observed in volatile-element-depleted meteorites. Even heating at temperatures as low as 1050 degrees C, affecting alkali elements only slightly, leads to large losses of lead, which are an order of magnitude greater than required for producing CV chondrite patterns. Depletions of these elements apparently occurred in the solar nebula before accretion by incomplete condensation or removal of gas during condensation. Nearly-CI-chondritic Sn/Pb ratios are observed in Allende and other carbonaceous chondrites. Evaporation from a solid leads to a severe increase in this ratio. Similarly, Rb/Cs ratios (about 12) are approximately CI-like in all groups of carbonaceous chondrites, perhaps reflecting the inability of nebular processes to fractionate these ratios. In contrast, terrestrial, lunar, and eucritic rocks have much higher Rb/Cs ratios [5]. As volatile loss from molten magmas is excluded [2], their low Cs contents must be characteristic of the parent material. This may exclude carbonaceous chondrites as source materials of eucrites, the Earth, and the Moon. The low Cs in planetary precursor materials may have been produced by secondary heating of small fragments of solid matter at subsolidus temperatures before final accretion. Equilibrated chondrites also show high Rb/Cs ratios, perhaps indicating mobilization of Cs at metamorphic temperatures. References: [1] Palme H. et al. (1988) in Meteorites and the Early Solar System, 436-461, Univ. of Arizona. [2] Humayan M. and Clayton R. N. (1993) LPSC XXIV, 685-686. [3] Davis A. M. et al. (1990) Nature, 347, 655-658. [4] Wulf A. V. and Palme H. (1991) LPSC XXII, 1527-1528. [5] McDonough W. F. et al. (1992) GCA, 56, 1001-1012. Figure 1 appears here in the hard copy.

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