Manganese chondrites

Virag A, Zinner E, Lewis RS, Tang M (1989) Isotopic compositions of H, C, and N in C8 diamonds from the Allende and Murray carbonaceous chondrites. Lunar Planet Sci XX 1158-1159 Volkening J, Papanastassiou DA (1989) Iron isotope anomalies. Astrophys J 347 L43-L46 Volkening J, Papanastassiou DA (1990) Zinc isotope anomalies. Astrophys J 358 L29-L32 Wadhwa M, Zinner EK, Crozaz G (1997) Manganese-chromium systematics in sulfides of unequilibrated enstatite chondrites. Meteorit Planet Sci 32 281-292... 

The aubrites are the most reduced achondrites (Keil et al., 1989). Their silicates are essentially free of iron, and they contain minor metallic iron. A variety of unusual sulfides of calcium, chromium, manganese, titanium, and sodium - all usually lithophile elements -occur in aubrites. These unusual sulfides also characterize the highly reduced enstatite chondrites, which may have been precursors for these rocks. 

The bulk chemical composition of the dust, obtained by averaging the compositions of particles in numerous tracks (Fig. 12.11a) and impact crater residues (Fig. 12.11b), is chondritic for iron, silicon, titanium, chromium, manganese, nickel, germanium, and selenium, within the 2o confidence level (Flynn el al., 2006). Copper, zinc, and gallium are... 

The abundances of 39 nongaseous elements in the Sun have assigned errors below 30%. Only the four elements sulfur, manganese, scandium, and strontium differ by more than 20% from Cl abundances. The difference is below 10% for 27 of these elements. The agreement between meteoritic and solar abundances must therefore be considered excellent and there is not much room left for further improvements. Obvious candidates for redetermination of solar abundances are manganese and sulfur. The hmiting factor in the accuracy of meteorite abundances is the inherent variability of Cl chondrites, primarily the Orgueil meteorite. 

The bulk compositions of chondrites closely match the compositions of the solar photosphere, with the exception of a few highly volatile elements (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, helium) and lithium (see Chapter 1.03). The chondrite groups also show different levels of depletions in moderately volatile elements (e.g., manganese, sodium, potassium, gallium, antimony, selenium. 

Based on the bulk chemistry, IDPs are divided into two groups (i) micrometer-sized chondritic particles and (ii) micrometer-sized nonchondritic particles. A particle is defined as chondritic when magnesium, aluminum, silicon, sulfur, calcium, titanium, chromium, manganese, iron, and nickel occur in relative proportions similar (within a factor of 2) to their solar element abundances, as represented by the Cl carbonaceous chondrite composition (Brownlee et al., 1976). Chondritic IDPs differ significantly in form and texture from the components of known carbonaceous chondrite groups and are highly enriched in carbon relative to the most carbon-rich Cl carbonaceous chondrites (Rietmeijer, 1992 Thomas et al., 1996 Rietmeijer, 1998, 2002). 

Figure 5 Concentrations of soluble elements in CM chondrites, illustrating the restricted compositional range of these elements in chondrites with variable degrees of alteration, (a) Sodium versus potassium and (b) manganese versus calcium (sources Kallemeyn and Wasson, 1981 Jarosewich, 1990).

Itqiy is distinct from chondritic meteorites in bulk composition. Aluminum, FREE, europium, sodium, potassium, vanadium, chromium, and manganese are aU depleted. Itqiy has La/Yb of 0. lOxCI, and Eu/Sm of 0.16 X Cl. Refractory siderophile elements are enriched —2-3 X Cl, while moderately volatile siderophile elements are at roughly Cl abundances. The bulk rock Mg/Si and Fe/Si ratios are greater than those of EH or EL chondrites. 

Wadhwa M., Zinner E. K., and Crozaz G. (1997) Manganese-chronmium systematics in sulfides of unequilibrated ensta-tite chondrites. Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 32, 281-292. 

The major-element compositions of 200 chondritic IDPs were measured by EDS (Table 1 and Figure 12). All of the particles were identified as extraterrestrial because they have approximately chondritic compositions or consist predominantly of a single mineral grain like forsterite or pyrrhotite (commonly found within chondritic IDPs) 37% of the particles are CSIDPs, 45% are CP IDPs, and 18% IDPs composed predominantly of a single mineral. Table 1 summarizes the compositions of the IDPs. Within a factor of 2 the abundances of oxygen, magnesium, aluminum, sulfur, calcium, chromium, manganese, iron, and nickel are approximately chondritic. CP IDPs are a closer match to Cl carbonaceous chondrites than CS IDPs, and they are closer to Cl bulk than to Cl... 

The concentrations of four typical moderately volatile elements—manganese, sodium, selenium, and zinc—in the various classes of chondritic meteorites are shown in Figure 12, where elements are normalized to magnesium and CI-chondrites. Again there is excellent agreement between solar abundances and Cl-meteorites. A characteristic feature of the chemistry of carbonaceous chondrites is the simultaneous depletion of sodium and manganese in all types of carbonaceous chondrites, except Cl. Ordinary and enstatite chondrites are not or only slightly... 

In Figure 13 the Earth s mantle seems to extend the trend of the moderately volatile elements to lower abundances, at least for sodium, manganese, and zinc (zinc behaves as a lithophile element in the Earth s mantle (see Dreibus and Palme, 1996)). The elements lithium, potassium, and rubidium which are not plotted here, show similar trends. The carbonaceous chondrite trend of iron is not extended to the Earth, as most of the iron of the Earth is in the core. The magnesium abundance of the Earth shows a slightly different trend. If the core had 5% silicon (previous section) and if that would be added to the bulk Earth silicon, then the bulk Mg/Si ratio of the Earth would be the same as that of carbonaceous chondrites (Eigure 10) and the silicon abundance of the Earth s mantle in Figure 13 would coincide with the magnesium abundance. 

Figures 12 and 16). The Mn/Na ratio of the Earth s mantle is also chondritic (Figures 12 and 16). Heating of meteorite samples to temperatures above 1,000 °C for a period of days will inevitably lead to significant losses of sodium and potassium but will not affect manganese... 

In summary, it appears from Figure 17 that the bulk composition of the Earth is related to the carbonaceous chondrites, suggesting the same event of manganese depletion for carbonaceous chondrites and the Earth. This supports the hypothesis that the depletion of volatile elements in the various solar system materials is a nebular event at the beginning of formation of the solar system as suggested by Palme et al. (1988), Humayun and Cassen (2000), and Nyquist et al. (2001). 

The minor amount of manganese in the core reflects the volatility model assumed for this element. O Neill and Palme (1997) argue that manganese and sodium have similar volatilities based on the limited variation in Mn/Na ratios in chondrites (see also Chapter 2.01). However, a plot of Na/Ti versus Mn/Na in chondrites (Figure 10) shows that indeed Mn/Na varies as a function of volatility this illustration monitors volatility by comparing titanium, a refractory lithophile element, with sodium, a moderately... 

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