Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Jul 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992metic..27q.267n&link_type=abstract
Meteoritics, vol. 27, no. 3, volume 27, page 267
Mathematics
Logic
4
Scientific paper
Our previous work involving carbon and nitrogen abundance and isotopic composition of Ornans group chondrites (1) has shown that these measurements have the potential for investigating parent body metamorphism, and we now expand this study. The HF/HCl residues of Colony, Kainsaz, Ornans, Lance and Acfer 094 show unimodal carbon yield profiles. The peak yields are seen to increase as a function of temperature according to known petrologic subtype (2), revealing a concordant increase in the crystallinity of the amorphous carbon with progressive metamorphism. Only the least metamorphosed Colony and Acfer 094 residues display any evidence of presolar silicon carbide. The inference here is that silicon carbide is destroyed during only mild metamorphism. Chromic and perchloric acid residues have revealed that CO3 diamonds are characterized by delta^13C minima of between -34.3o/oo and -40.3o/oo and delta^15N minima of -342+-9.2o/oo, consistent with similar work on other chondrites (3). C/N ratios of diamonds have been used as indicators of relative metamorphic grade (3,4), as nitrogen-rich diamonds are presumed to be lost progressively during metamorphism (5). On this basis, Colony has undergone a much lesser degree of metamorphism than Kainsaz or Lance which are less distinguishable on a C/N plot. An experiment on Ornans which provided only incomplete data suggests that its C/N plateau lies slightly above that of Colony, in agreement with its subtype. The diamond contents of these meteorites are 135 ppm (Colony), 61 ppm (Kainsaz) and 59 ppm (Lance), showing that diamond is present to moderate grades of metamorphism. Carbon data for silicon carbide has been acquired for Colony, Kainsaz and Lance from high temperature experiments on the diamond residues. The amount of SiC in Colony is now established as about 1 ppm of the whole-rock. Neither Kainsaz nor Lance show evidence of silicon carbide, although both show a heavy carbon component combusting around 800 degrees C. There is about 26 times as much of this component in Kainsaz as there is in Lance, and an unresolvable amount in Colony. A precombusted HF/HCl residue of Acfer 094 has demonstrated a SiC content of around 7 ppm, equivalent to values expected for CM2's and further questioning the legitimacy of assigning Acfer 094 to the CO3 group. The data acquired so far shows that these meteorites contain diamond with nitrogen concentrations which range between CV3 and CM2 averages. Only the 3.0 subtypes contain silicon carbide. There seems to be a hiatus between subtypes 3.0 and 3.1, where silicon carbide is completely destroyed, and the diamond content is halved. This is analagous to the discontinuity between ordinary chondrite subtypes 3.4 and 3.5 (4), although at a higher metamorphic grade and suggests that silicon carbide is more susceptible to metamorphic destruction under the oxidizing conditions of the CO3 group than diamond. The effect is still not yet understood, but is likely to be an important parameter in distinguishing nebular and parent body effects. The fact that Indarch, a highly reduced enstatite chondrite, shows the opposite effect, i.e. a high SiC-to-diamond ratio clearly has implications for understanding the destruction of presolar grains by metamorphism under different conditions. References 1. Newton, J. et al. (1992) LPSC XXIII 985-986. 2. Scott, E.R.D. & Jones, R.H. (1990) Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 54 2485-2502. 3. Russell, S.S. et al. (1990) Science 254 1188-1191. 4. Huss, G.R. (1990) Nature 347 159-162. 5. Russell, S.S. et al. (1992) LPSC XXIII 1187-1188.
Arden John W.
Newton Jonathan
Pillinger Colin T.
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