Chemical and oxygen isotopic compositions of accretionary rim and matrix olivine in CV chondrites: Constraints on the evolution of nebular dust

Abstract

A correlation of petrography, mineral chemistry and in situ oxygen isotopic compositions of fine-grained olivine from the matrix and of fine- and coarse-grained olivine from accretionary rims around Ca–Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) and chondrules in CV chondrites is used here to constrain the processes that occurred in the solar nebula and on the CV parent asteroid. The accretionary rims around Leoville, Vigarano, and Allende CAIs exhibit a layered structure: the inner layer consists of coarse-grained, forsteritic and 16O-rich olivine (Fa 1–40 and Δ 17O = −24‰ to −5‰; the higher values are always found in the outer part of the layer and only in the most porous meteorites), whereas the middle and the outer layers contain finer-grained olivines that are more fayalitic and 16O-depleted (Fa 15–50 and Δ 17O = −18‰ to +1‰). The CV matrices and accretionary rims around chondrules have olivine grains of textures, chemical and isotopic compositions similar to those in the outer layers of accretionary rims around CAIs. There is a correlation between local sample porosity and olivine chemical and isotopic compositions: the more compact regions (the inner accretionary rim layer) have the most MgO- and 16O-rich compositions, whereas the more porous regions (outer rim layers around CAIs, accretionary rims around chondrules, and matrices) have the most MgO- and 16O-poor compositions. In addition, there is a negative correlation of olivine grain size with fayalite contents and Δ 17O values. However, not all fine-grained olivines are FeO-rich and 16O-poor; some small (<1 μm in Leoville and 5–10 μm in Vigarano and Allende) ferrous (Fa >20) olivine grains in the outer layers of the CAI accretionary rims and in the matrix show significant enrichments in 16O (Δ 17O = −20‰ to −10‰). We infer that the inner layer of the accretionary rims around CAIs and, at least, some olivine grains in the finer portions of accretionary rims and CV matrices formed in an 16O-rich gaseous reservoir, probably in the CAI-forming region. Grains in the outer layers of the CAI accretionary rims and in the rims around chondrules as well as matrix may have also originated as 16O-rich olivine. However, these olivines must have exchanged O isotopes to variable extents in the presence of an 16O-poor reservoir, possibly the nebular gas in the chondrule-forming region(s) and/or fluids in the parent body. The observed trend in isotopic compositions may arise from mixtures of 16O-rich forsterites with grain overgrowths or newly formed grains of 16O-poor fayalitic olivines formed during parent body metamorphism. However, the observed correlations of chemical and isotopic compositions of olivine with grain size and local porosity of the host meteorite suggest that olivine accreted as a single population of 16O-rich forsterite and subsequently exchanged Fe–Mg and O isotopes in situ in the presence of aqueous solutions (i.e., fluid-assisted thermal metamorphism).