Isotopic composition of gadolinium and neutron-capture effects in some meteorites

Abstract

The isotopic composition of Gd in one chondrite, two achondrites, and the silicate inclusions of two iron meteorites has been determined. When corrected for mass discrimination, Gd in all samples except the Norton County achondrite shows the same relative isotopic abundances as terrestrial Gd. These results set an upper limit of 3×10^(15) neutrons per cm^2 on a differential integrated thermal neutron irradiation of the earth and these meteorites. Neutron-capture effects are present in Gd extracted from the Norton County achondrite. These most probably have been produced by secondary neutrons during the exceptionally long cosmic ray exposure of this large stone meteorite. The isotopic anomalies correspond to an integrated thermal neutron flux of (6.3±0.9)×10^(15) neutrons per cm^2. The percent abundances of terrestrial Gd found in our work for Gd^(160), Gd^(158), Gd^(157), Gd^(156), Gd^(155), Gd^(154), and Gd^(152) are 21.863, 24.835, 15.652, 20.466, 14.800, 2.1809, and 0.2029, respectively. Because of the higher precision, these abundances should replace the currently accepted values.