Differentiation of metal-rich meteoritics parent bodies: I. Measursements of PGEs, Re, Mo, W, and Au in meteoritic Fe-Ni metal

Abstract

We describe an analytical technique for measurements of Fe, Ni, Co, Mo, Ru, Rh, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, and Au in bulk samples of iron meteorites. The technique involves EPMA (Fe, Ni, Co) and LA-ICP-MS analyses of individual phases of iron meteorites, followed by calculation of bulk compositions based on the abundances of these phases. We report, for the first time, a consistent set of concentrations of Mo, Ru, Rh, Pd, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, and Au in the iron meteorites Arispe, Bennett County, Grant, Cape of Good Hope, Cape York, Carbo, Chinga, Coahuila, Duchesne, Gibeon, Henbury, Mundrabilla, Negrillos, Odessa, Sikhote-Alin, and Toluca and the Divnoe primitive achondrite. The comparison of our LA-ICP-MS data for a number of iron meteorites with high-precision isotope dilution and INAA data demonstrates the good precision and accuracy of our technique. The narrow ranges of variations of Mo and Pd concentrations within individual groups of iron meteorites suggest that these elements can provide important insights into the evolution of parent bodies of iron meteorites. Under certain assumptions, the Mo concentrations can be used to estimate mass fractions of the metal-sulfide cores in the parent bodies of iron meteorites. It appears that a range of Pd variations within a group of iron meteorites can serve as a useful indicator of S content in the core of its parent body.