Chondrites chemical abundances

Laul J. C., Ganapathy R., Anders E., and Morgan J. W. (1973) Chemical fractionations in meteorites VI. Accretion temperatures of H-, LL-, and E-chondrites, from abundance of volatile trace elements. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 31, 329-357. 

Water and carbon play critical roles in many of the Earth s chemical and physical cycles and yet their origin on the Earth is somewhat mysterious. Carbon and water could easily form solid compounds in the outer regions of the solar nebula, and accordingly the outer planets and many of their satellites contain abundant water and carbon. The type I carbonaceous chondrites, meteorites that presumably formed in the asteroid belt between the terrestrial and outer planets, contain up to 5% (m/m) carbon and up to 20% (m/m) water of hydration. Comets may contain up to 50% water ice and 25% carbon. The terrestrial planets are comparatively depleted in carbon and water by orders of magnitude. The concentration of water for the whole Earth is less that 0.1 wt% and carbon is less than 500 ppm. Actually, it is remarkable that the Earth contains any of these compounds at all. As an example of how depleted in carbon and water the Earth could have been, consider the moon, where indigenous carbon and water are undetectable. Looking at Fig. 2-4 it can be seen that no water- or carbon-bearing solids should have condensed by equilibrium processes at the temperatures and pressures that probably were typical in the zone of fhe solar... 

The chondrite-normalized REE patterns for basement-hosted uranium oxides are similar, except for a small variation of LREE abundances, indicating identical physico-chemical deposition conditions (T, pH, fluid composition) for the Eastern part of the Athabasca Basin basement. The previous REE distinction made between Ingress and Egress deposits (Fayek Kyser 1997) is not confirmed by the present study, because both types have similar REE abundance and fractionations, indicating the similarity of the sources and the processes for both deposit types. Thus, these results suggest... 

A cosmochemical periodic table, illustrating the behavior of elements in chondritic meteorites. Cosmic abundances are indicated by symbol sizes. Volatilities of elements reflect the temperatures at which 50°/o of each element would condense into a solid phase from a gas of solar composition. As in Figure 1.2, the chemical affinities of each element, lithophile for silicates and oxides, siderophile for metals, and chalcophile for sulfides, are indicated. Some of the most highly volatile phases may have remained uncondensed in the nebula. Stable, radioactive, and radiogenic isotopes used in cosmochemistry are indicated by bold outlines, as in Figure 1.2. Abundances and 50% condensation temperatures are from tabulations by Lodders and Fegley (1998). 

In practice, it is not sufficient for an object to have an isotopic composition that cannot be explained by radioactive decay or mass-dependent fractionation effects. The object must also have physical and chemical characteristics making it unlikely to be a product of solar system processes. For example, millimeter- to centimeter-sized refractory inclusions from primitive chondrites have been shown to contain small (parts in 103 to 104) isotopic anomalies in many elements. However, based on the size, composition, physical characteristics, and abundance of the inclusions, it is generally believed that these objects formed within the solar system. They preserve small isotopic anomalies because they did not form from a representative sample of the bulk solar system (see Chapters 7 and 14). So, isotopic anomalies can indicate either that an object is itself presolar or that it formed in the solar system from precursor material that was not fully homogenized in the solar system. As mass spectrometry has become more precise, small isotopic anomalies of the second type have shown up in a wide variety of chondritic materials. As we discuss below and in Chapter 7, these anomalies and bona fide presolar grains can be used as probes of processes in the early solar system. 

Cosmochemistry is the study of the chemical compositions of various solar system materials. Chondrites are the most abundant primitive samples. They are essentially sedimentary rocks composed of mechanical mixtures of materials with different origins (chondrules, refractory inclusions, metal, sulfide, matrix), which we will call components. Chondrites formed by the accretion of solid particles within the solar nebula or onto the surfaces of growing planetesimals. They are very old (>4.5 billion years, as measured by radioactive chronometers) and contain some of the earliest formed objects in the solar system. Chondrites have bulk chemical compositions very similar to the solar photosphere, except... 

Classification system for chondrites, adapted from Van Schmus and Wood (1967). A meteorite is classified by identifying its chemical group and petrologic type. Approximate temperatures for metamorphism or alteration are shown at the bottom. The relative abundances of meteorites assigned to various petrologic types are indicated by the shaded proportion of each box (data from Scott and Krot, 2004). 

A perplexing observation is that aqueous alteration appears to have been largely isochemical. The Cl chondrites, which provide the closest match to solar abundances, show the most extensive alteration. Likewise, the chemical compositions of CM chondrites are nearly uniform, despite significant differences in their degrees of aqueous alteration. Aqueous fluids can dissolve significant amounts of soluble materials during reactions, but there is little evidence in bulk Cl and CM chondrites that the dissolved material was transported anywhere by the fluids. Why solidified mud should have retained its cosmic composition is a mystery. 

Weisberg et al. 2006 Chapter 1). The key point is that subdivision of chondrites is based on differences in the basic chemical, mineralogical, and textural properties that are unique to each class. Chondrites also record difference in redox conditions before and during their accretion providing important clues to disk environments and properties such as oxygen, carbon, and sulfur abundances in these regions. 

Laboratory study of the first lunar samples brought to Earth by Apollo 11 ruled out all ideas that the Moon might be a primitive object, i.e. an object that had remained rather cool after its accumulation with only minor melting processes induced by large impacts on the surface. On the contrary, it became evident from the chemical analysis that the Moon, like the Earth, is a highly differentiated object. On the Moon many chemical elements are strongly enriched or depleted as compared with their abundances in carbonaceous chondrites which apart from the most volatile elements, are believed to be most representative of solar matter. Thus it became clear that, at least in the upper 200 km, extensive melting processes must have occurred. 

Fig. 3a. (Upper diagram). Abundances of chemical elements in lunar rock 12018 vs. the abundances in carbonaceous chondrites type 1 (C 1) normalized to silicon. Data for 12018 were taken from all authors of the Second Lunar Science Conference. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, Supplement 2,2 (1971), data for C 1 from the compilation of Mason17 ...

---