Metallographic Cooling Rates of IAB Iron Meteorites

Details Metallographic Cooling Rates of IAB Iron Meteorites Metallographic Cooling Rates of IAB Iron Meteorites

Sep 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995metic..30r.544m&link_type=abstract

Meteoritics, vol. 30, no. 5, page 544

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2

Carbon, Cooling Rates, Metallographic, Meteorites, Copiapo, Iron Iab, Lands, Toluca, Phase Diagrams

Scientific paper

Non-metals can play an important role for the diffusion-controlled growth of the Widmanstatten structure in iron meteorites. The presence of P significantly changes the diffusivity and equilibrium concentration of Ni in kamacite and taenite [1,2], and the effects of P have therefore been included in metallographic cooling rate calculations for many years. The presence of C probably increases the diffusivity of Ni in taenite up to a factor of two, which is considerably smaller than the effect of P that increases the Ni diffusivity by up to a factor of 10 [3,1]. On the other hand, C partitions strongly into taenite leaving kamacite essentially C-free (<10 micrograms/g [4]) and significantly reduces the equilibrium Ni-concentration in taenite [5]. Therefore, the effect of C should be included in metallographic cooling rate calculations of C-rich iron meteorites [6]. IAB iron meteorites have much higher bulk C-concentrations than most other iron meteorites and the metallic phases of the IAB irons were probably saturated with C soon after kamacite nucleation commenced. Since C is expected to decrease the solubility of P in taenite [7] we have based our cooling rate estimate of Toluca (IAB) on the Fe-Ni-C system rather than the Fe-Ni-P system. Previous metallographic cooling rates determined for IAB irons, including the effect of P, are low (1-10 degrees C/My [8] and 30-70 degrees C/My [9]). Fractional crystallization of S-rich cores [10, 11] and impact generated melt pools [12] have been proposed as origins of the IAB iron meteorites. Since we expect melt pools near the surface to have cooled significantly faster than the core of a differentiated parent body, the metallographic cooling rates may be used to discriminate between the two models. We have performed thermodynamic calculations on the C-saturated Fe-Ni-C-system at temperatures above 400 degrees C [13]. The results agree with earlier experimental work [5] and indicate that C, to the same degree as P, reduces the Ni concentration of taenite coexisting with kamacite. We did not extend the thermodynamic calculations below 400 degrees C due to the lack of data. Therefore, our cooling rate estimates are based on taenite lamellae wider than about 10 micrometers which are largely sensitive to the cooling rate above around 400 degrees C. Our preliminary results show a slightly better match between calculated and measured Ni mid-profile-concentrations versus total-lamella-width for Toluca (IAB) using the Fe-Ni-C system than using the Fe-Ni-P system. This difference is mainly due to a lower diffusivity of Ni in taenite in the Fe-Ni-C system. The average cooling rate obtained for Toluca using the Fe-Ni-C system is approximately a factor of 5 lower than the cooling rate obtained on the basis of the Fe-Ni-P system. However, both lie in the range 1-15 degrees C/My which is consistent with cooling rate estimates based on Pu-fission tracks in silicate inclusions of Landes and Copiapo; both IAB [13]. These relatively low cooling rate is in discordance with a melt-pool origin of the IAB iron meteorites. References: [1] Dean D. C. and Goldstein J. I. (1986) Metall. Trans., 17A, 1131-1138. [2] Romig A. D. and Goldstein J. I. (1980) Metall. Trans. A, 11A, 1151-1159. [3] Wells C. and Mehl R. F. (1941) Trans. AIME, 145, 329-339. [4] Makjanic J. et al. (1988) NIMB, B30, 466-469. [5] Romig A. D. and Goldstein J. I. (1978) Metall. Trans., 9A, 1599-1609. [6] Meibom et al. (1994) Meteoritics, 29, 501. [7] Buchwald, personal communication. [8] Rasmussen K. L. (1989) Phys. Scripta, 39, 410-416. [9] Herpfer M. A. et al., GCA, 58, 1353-1365. [10] Kracher A. (1985) Proc. LPSC 15th, in JGR, 90, C689-C698. [11] McCoy T. et al. (1993) Meteoritics, 28, 552-560. [12] Choi B.-G. et al. (1995) GCA, 59, 593-612. [13] Sundman. B., Manual to Thermo-Calc, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. [14] Benkheiri et al. (1979) Icarus, 40, 497-501.

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