Nature 249, 333 - 334 (24 May 1974); doi:10.1038/249333a0

Major and trace elements in the Allende meteorite

PHILIP M. MARTIN^* & BRIAN MASON^†

^*Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
^†Mineral Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560

WE have determined major and trace element abundances for seven Ca,Al-rich aggregates, ten melilite chondrules, and an olivine chondrule and two olivine-rich aggregates from the Allende meteorite, a type III carbonaceous chondrite. Major element abundances were determined with the electron microprobe technique described by Reed and Ware¹. An MS7 spark source mass spectrometer was used for the determination of trace element abundances. The technique used was that described by Taylor² but with improved and extended data reduction techniques. The precision is about 5% for the rare earth elements (REEs) and the accuracy about 10%, but varies somewhat, being poorer for elements below mass number 105 than for those with higher mass numbers.

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