scholarly journals Fe-Ni-P-S Melt Pockets in Elga IIE Iron Meteorite: Evidence for the Origin at High-Pressures Up to 20 GPa

Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Litasov ◽  
Svetlana Teplyakova ◽  
Anton Shatskiy ◽  
Konstantin Kuper

Here we report new data on high-pressure microstructures in Elga group IIE iron meteorites, made of solidified Fe-Ni-P-S melt pockets and microcrystalline aggregates, which could be formed only at high pressures and temperatures according to the experimental data. The bulk composition of the melt pockets and crystals correspond to the Fe3P-Fe3S solid solution with the closure of an immiscibility gap at pressures near 20 GPa in static experiments. Some other melt pockets fit with the Fe2S-Fe2P compositions, which could also correspond to high pressures and temperatures. The results suggest a late shock episode during the formation of the IIE iron parent body, which may be prior or due to the final disruption that caused the meteorite arrival to Earth. It also has an important implication to the shock features in other meteorites, such as ureilite.

1980 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 781-795 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Wasson ◽  
John Willis ◽  
Chien M. Wai ◽  
Alfred Kracher

AbstractSeveral low-Ni iron meteorites previously assigned to group IAB are reclassified IIICD on the basis of lower Ge, Ga, W and Ir concentrations and higher As concentrations; the low-Ni extreme of IIICD is now 62 mg/g, that of IAB is 64 mg/g. The resulting fractionation patterns in the two groups are quite similar. It has long been established that, in contrast to the magmatic iron meteorite groups, IAB and IIICD did not form by fractional crystallization of a metallic magma. Other models have been proposed, but all have serious flaws. A new model is proposed involving the formation of each iron in small pools of impact melt on a parent body consisting of material similar to the chondritic inclusions found in some IAB and IIICD irons, but initially unequilibrated. These impact melts ranged in temperatures from ~ 1190 K to ~ 1350 K. The degree of equilibration between melt and unmelted solids ranged from minimal at the lowest temperature to moderate at the highest temperature. The lowest temperature melts were near the cotectic in the Fe-Ni-S system with Ni contents of ~ 12 atom %. Upon cooling, these precipitated metal having ~ 600 mg/g Ni by equilibrium crystallization. The Ni-rich melt resulted from the melting of Ni-rich sulfides and metal in the unequilibrated chondritic parent. Low-Ni irons formed in high temperature melts near the composition of the FeS-Fe eutectic or somewhat more metal rich. We suggest that the decreasing Ge, Ga and refractory abundances with increasing Ni concentration reflect the trapping of these elements in oxide phases in the unequilibrated chondritic material, and that very little entered the Ni-rich melt parental to the Oktibbeha County iron. The remaining elements tended to have element/Ni ratios in the melts that were more or less independent of temperature. The remarkable correlation between I-Xe age of the chondritic inclusions and Ni content of the host metal is explained by a detailed evolution of (mega)regolith in which these groups originated. The most Ni-rich melts could only be generated from an unequilibrated chondrite parent; as the continuing deposition of impact energy produced increasingly higher grades of metamorphism, the maximum Ni content of the impact melts (and their subsequently precipitated metal) gradually decreased.


2020 ◽  
Vol 105 (11) ◽  
pp. 1704-1711
Author(s):  
Jörg Fritz ◽  
Ansgar Greshake ◽  
Mariana Klementova ◽  
Richard Wirth ◽  
Lukas Palatinus ◽  
...  

Abstract We report on the occurrence of a new high-pressure Ca-Al-silicate in localized shock melt pockets found in the feldspatic lunar meteorite Oued Awlitis 001 and discuss the implications of our discovery. The new mineral crystallized as tiny, micrometer-sized, acicular grains in shock melt pockets of roughly anorthitic bulk composition. Transmission electron microscopy based three-dimensional electron diffraction (3D ED) reveals that the CaAl4Si2O11 crystals are identical to the calcium aluminum silicate (CAS) phase first reported from static pressure experiments. The new mineral has a hexagonal structure, with a space group of P63/mmc and lattice parameters of a = 5.42(1) Å; c = 12.70(3) Å; V = 323(4) Å3; Z = 2. This is the first time 3D ED was applied to structure determination of an extraterrestrial mineral. The International Mineralogical Association (IMA) has approved this naturally formed CAS phase as the new mineral “donwilhelmsite” [CaAl4Si2O11], honoring the U.S. lunar geologist Don E. Wilhelms. On the Moon, donwilhelmsite can form from the primordial feldspathic crust during impact cratering events. In the feldspatic lunar meteorite Oued Awlitis 001, needles of donwilhelmsite crystallized in ~200 mm sized shock melt pockets of anorthositic-like chemical composition. These melt pockets quenched within milliseconds during declining shock pressures. Shock melt pockets in meteorites serve as natural crucibles mimicking the conditions expected in the Earth's mantle. Donwilhelmsite forms in the Earth's mantle during deep recycling of aluminous crustal materials, and is a key host for Al and Ca of subducted sediments in most of the transition zone and the uppermost lower mantle (460–700 km). Donwilhelmsite bridges the gap between kyanite and the Ca-component of clinopyroxene at low pressures and the Al-rich Ca-ferrite phase and Ca-perovskite at high-pressures. In ascending buoyant mantle plumes, at about 460 km depth, donwilhelmsite is expected to break down into minerals such as garnet, kyanite, and clinopyroxene. This process may trigger minor partial melting, releasing a range of incompatible minor and trace elements and contributing to the enriched mantle (EM1 and EM2) components associated with subducted sedimentary lithologies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawei Fan ◽  
Yunqian Kuang ◽  
Jingui Xu ◽  
Bo Li ◽  
Wenge Zhou ◽  
...  

1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Al-Himyary ◽  
G. A. Karim

A formulation for the burning velocity of methane–air mixtures was developed over a range of equivalence ratios at temperatures and pressures high enough to cover conditions encountered in a typical operating spark ignition engine using the experimental data of Babkin and Kozachenko [1]. An example involving the use of such data in a diagnostic program to yield information about the characteristics of flame propagation in an engine fueled with methane is shown.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (13) ◽  
pp. e2026779118
Author(s):  
Marc M. Hirschmann ◽  
Edwin A. Bergin ◽  
Geoff A. Blake ◽  
Fred J. Ciesla ◽  
Jie Li

During the formation of terrestrial planets, volatile loss may occur through nebular processing, planetesimal differentiation, and planetary accretion. We investigate iron meteorites as an archive of volatile loss during planetesimal processing. The carbon contents of the parent bodies of magmatic iron meteorites are reconstructed by thermodynamic modeling. Calculated solid/molten alloy partitioning of C increases greatly with liquid S concentration, and inferred parent body C concentrations range from 0.0004 to 0.11 wt%. Parent bodies fall into two compositional clusters characterized by cores with medium and low C/S. Both of these require significant planetesimal degassing, as metamorphic devolatilization on chondrite-like precursors is insufficient to account for their C depletions. Planetesimal core formation models, ranging from closed-system extraction to degassing of a wholly molten body, show that significant open-system silicate melting and volatile loss are required to match medium and low C/S parent body core compositions. Greater depletion in C relative to S is the hallmark of silicate degassing, indicating that parent body core compositions record processes that affect composite silicate/iron planetesimals. Degassing of bare cores stripped of their silicate mantles would deplete S with negligible C loss and could not account for inferred parent body core compositions. Devolatilization during small-body differentiation is thus a key process in shaping the volatile inventory of terrestrial planets derived from planetesimals and planetary embryos.


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