Other
Scientific paper
Sep 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995metic..30q.561p&link_type=abstract
Meteoritics, vol. 30, no. 5, page 561
Other
Exsolution, Meteorites, Allan Hills 84025, Calcalong Creek, Gorlovka, Krymka, Lowitz, Springwater, Olivine, Solid Solutions
Scientific paper
Recently Petaev and Brearley [1] showed that lamellar structure in olivine grains in the Divnoe meteorite was produced by the low-temperature exsolution of primary homogeneous grains. Exsolved olivine in Divnoe is in accordance with the thermodynamic model of olivine solid solution of [2], which predicts a miscibility gap in ferromagnesian olivines below ~340 degrees C within a compositional range that widens with decreasing temperature. Experiments on the coexistence of olivines having a range of compositions with aqueous solutions of (Fe,Mg)Cl2 [3] suggest that exsolution in ferromagnesian olivines could occur even at temperatures as high as ~400 - 450 degrees C. However, [1] remains the only observation of exsolution in natural olivines so far. This means either that (1) the exsolution in Divnoe olivine is unique, or (2) olivine grains in other slowly cooled coarse-grained rocks has not been studied closely enough to detect them. This work attempts to clarify the issue. Olivine grains from selected meteorites (Springwater pallasite, Lowitz mesosiderite, ALHA 84025 brachinite, Gorlovka H3-4 chondrite and Krymka L3 chondrite, and the Calcalong Creek lunar meteorite) and terrestrial rocks (San Carlos forsterite and Rockport fayalite) were studied by EPMA using the same equipment and technique as in [1]. Among meteorites, pallasites and mesosiderites are known to have slowest cooling rates at low temperatures. Olivines in the Springwater pallasite (Fa18) [4] and the Lowitz mesosiderite (Fa15-37) [5] are compositionally comparable with that of Divnoe (Fa23-29) [1], and it was expected that exsolved olivine grains would be found there. Olivines from other samples were studied for comparison. No lamellar structure was observed in BSE images of the olivine grains studied. The variations of Fa contents in olivine grains from all samples but Springwater and Lowitz meteorites display no regular pattern, and are basically within the 2sigma uncertainty range (+/-0.2 mole % Fa). As expected, olivines from the Lowitz mesosiderite and, especially, from the Springwater pallasite display somewhat larger variations, within the ranges of 20.1 - 21.0 and 15.8 -17.7 mole % Fa, respectively. The olivine in Springwater shows a surprisingly regular pattern of minima spaced at ~ 16 micrometers. For reasons that are unclear all 'minima' analyses have low totals (90.47-94.31 wt.%), whereas most other analyses have totals > 97%. However, stoichiometry of all analyses is perfect; cation totals per 4 oxygens are 3.00+/-0.01, with very minor excess of Si over Mg+Fe in the 'minima' analyses. The results obtained so far suggest that lamellar structure of olivine grains in the Divnoe meteorite is unique. While chemical variability is found in the Springwater and Lowitz olivines, there is no lamellar structure, and the magnitude of the variations is 1.5 - 2 times smaller than it is in Divnoe olivines. Since olivine compositions in Divnoe, Lowitz and Springwater are similar, the structural differences among them must be due to different thermal histories. The lack of lamellar structure in the Lowitz olivine implies that even the slowest cooling down to 250 degrees C recorded in mesosiderites [6] does not result in olivine exsolution. It is possible that Divnoe experienced secondary reheating followed by prolonged low-temperature annealing. This would also account for the lack of shock features in the Divnoe opaque minerals [7] and the difference in distributions of cosmic-ray track lengths and densities between olivine and pyroxene [8]. References: [1] Petaev M. I. and Brearley A. J. (1994) Science, 266, 1545-1547. [2] Sack R. O. and Ghiorso M. S. (1989) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 102, 41-68. [3] Schulien S. (1980) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 74, 85-91. [4] Buseck P. R. (1977) GCA, 41, 711-740. [5] Delaney J. S. et al. (1980) Proc. LPSC 11th, 1073-1087. [6] Ganguly J. et al. (1994) GCA, 58, 2711-2723. [7] Petaev M. I. et al. (1994) Meteoritics, 29, 182-199. [8] Petaev M. I. et al. (1990) LPS XXI, 950-951.
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