Heating experiments on glass inclusions in Allende (CV3) olivines: Clues to the formation conditions of chondrules?

Abstract

Several pieces of the Allende CV3 chondrite were heated up to different final temperatures (1100, 1250, 1450 °C) with the aim to study glassy and glass-bearing inclusions in olivines as well as the glass mesostasis of chondrules and aggregates. The experiments were performed in a Pt-Pt90Rh10 heating stage at 1 bar pressure. The oxygen fugacity is estimated to have been between 10-9 and 10-10 atm at 1200 °C. The variation of the chemical composition of the heated glasses gives information concerning the behavior of the incompatible elements (with respect to the host) Al, Ca and Na. The chemical variation in the heated mesostasis glass shows that Ca exchange between the gas and condensed phases at sub-solidus temperatures can occur in a short time. Laboratory heating experiments show that glass inclusions will behave as closed systems and therefore preserved the alkalis they acquired. On the other hand, the mesostasis glass can loose them when heated to temperatures higher than 1100 °C. Evidently, the presence of Na-rich glasses, in chondrules and aggregates available to us, indicate that if there was a thermal process that did affect them, it must have been a low temperature one.