Two forsterite-bearing FUN inclusions in the Allende meteorite

Abstract

We have discovered two FUN inclusions, CG-14 and TE, among a group of five forsterite-rich inclusions in Allende, two of which are described for the first time herein. All five consist of euhedral forsterite and spinel crystals poikilitically enclosed by fassaite. Forsterite and spinel are usually segregated from one another, sometimes into a spinel-rich mantle and a forsterite-rich core. Some inclusions contain vesicles, indicating that they were once molten. The crystallization sequence inferred from textures is: spinel, forsterite, fassaite and, finally, Mg-rich melilite. One concentrically-zoned inclusion contains melilite in its mantle whose composition lies on the opposite side of the liquidus minimum in the melilite binary from that in its core. This suggests that segregation of forsterite from spinel in all of these inclusions could be due to volatilization of MgO and SiO2 relative to Al2O3 and CaO from the outsides of droplets. CG-14 is relatively uniformly enriched in refractory elements relative to Cl chondrites by a factor similar to that for Ca-, Al-rich coarse-grained inclusions except for Ca, Al and Hf which are unusually low. No Ce anomaly such as found in FUN inclusions Cl and HAL is present in CG-14. Whole-rock samples of CG-14 and TE are more strongly mass-fractionated in oxygen relative to “normal” Allende inclusions than the FUN inclusion EK 1-4-1 and less so than Cl. Relative to bulk Allende, both inclusions have strongly massfractionated magnesium and silicon and 25Mg excesses or deficits of 24Mg or 26Mg. CG-14 has a 29Si excess or a deficit of 28Si or 30Si. Volatilization loss cannot be responsible for the magnesium and silicon isotope fractionations, as this would require prohibitively large mass loss from these magnesium-rich inclusions. The remarkable similarity in textures between FUN and non-FUN inclusions implies similar thermal histories, arguing against different rates of evaporative loss of major elements. Sputtering alone may be insufficient to account for the magnitude and direction of oxygen isotope fractionation in FUN inclusions.