Abstract
Previous work ( G.J. Wasserburg, J.C. Huneke and D.S. Burnett, 1969) on isolated crystals of whitlockite in the meteorite St. Severin has shown that this mineral concentrates U but not to the extent necessary to account for the total uranium. In the present work, the microdistributions of the total Th and U were measured in polished rock sections by the fission track method. Approximately 95% of the Th and U was found to be distributed in the matrix while the remaining 5% was found to be concentrated in two species of phosphate crystals, mostly whitlockite but also in much rarer chlorapatite. The Th/U ratio was measured in seven crystals of whitlockite and one crystal of chlorapatite. The values are respectively (11.8 ± 1.4) and (1.5 ± 0.5). Comparison with rare-gas studies indicates that 244Pu probably followed Th geochemically in the whitlockite.
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