Krypton solar abundance

Noble gases and nitrogen in martian meteorites reveal several interior components having isotopic compositions different from those of the atmosphere. Xenon, krypton, and probably argon in the mantle components have solar isotopic compositions, rather than those measured in chondrites. However, ratios of these noble gas abundances are strongly fractionated relative to solar abundances. This decoupling of elemental and isotopic fractionation is not understood. The interior ratio in martian meteorites is similar to chondrites. 

Noble gases may provide a constraint on the source of water and other volatiles. The abundance pattern of noble gases in planetary atmospheres resembles that of chondrites, perhaps arguing against comets. However, there are some differences, especially in the abundance of xenon. Relative to solar system abundances, krypton is more depleted than xenon in chondrites, but in the planets, krypton and xenon are present in essentially solar relative abundances (Fig. 10.11). This observation has been used to support comets as the preferred source of volatiles (even though measurements of xenon and krypton in comets are lacking). A counter-argument is that the Ar/H20 ratio in comets (if the few available measurements are accurate and representative) limits the cometary addition of volatiles to the Earth to only about 1%. 

For krypton and xenon abundances were derived from computer hts of aN (neutron capture cross-section times abundance) versus mass number. Nuclei that are shielded from the r-process, so-called s-only nuclei, were used for the ht and the abundances of Kr and Xe were calculated. From these data, and the isotopic composition of the solar wind, the krypton and xenon elemental abundances were calculated (Palme and Beer, 1993) and are listed in Table 1. The meteorite data given in Table 1 will be discussed in a later section. 

For most of the chemical elements, the relative abundances of their stable isotopes in the Sun and solar nebula are well known, so that any departures from those values that may be found in meteorites and planetary materials can then be interpreted in terms of planet-forming processes. This is best illustrated for the noble gases neon, argon, krypton, and xenon. The solar isotopic abundances are known through laboratory mass-spectrometric analysis of solar wind extracted from lunar soils (Eberhardt et al., 1970) and gas-rich meteorites. Noble gases in other meteorites and in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars show many substantial differences from the solar composition, due to a variety of nonsolar processes, e.g., excesses of " Ar and... 

Wider R., Kehm K., Meshik A. P., and Hohenberg C. M. (1996) Secular changes in the xenon and krypton abundances in the solar wind recorded in single lunar grains. Nature 384, 46-49. 

Figure 3. High energy region of the (J.XRF spectrum for a 3 pm interplanetary dust particle showing peaks due to trace elements at the 10 ag level. Shown are the raw spectrum, background fit, individual fitted peaks (labeled) and the overall fitted spectrum. The fluorescence spectra for elements with atomic number near 40 are complicated by the overlap between the peak of element Z and the Kp peak of element Z-2. The odd-even abundance effect in the chondritic (solar) composition is apparent. Krypton derives from air in the analysis environment.

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