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Metal Grains in Chondritic Meteorites

Abstract

THE nickel–iron minerals taenite and kamacite in octahedrites (iron meteorites) are inhomogeneous, as shown in Fig. 1: taenite crystals are richest in nickel and kamacite crystals are poorest in nickel at the phase boundaries where they abut one another1–3. This is a natural consequence of the behaviour of nickel–iron alloy systems if they are cooled slowly and steadily, as in the interior of a planet4–10. The binary nickel–iron phase diagram predicts that beneath 800° C, as temperature falls, taenite and kamacite should continuously react with one another and change in composition. Nickel concentration should increase steadily in taenite, while in kamacite at T < 500° C it should decrease.

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WOOD, J. Metal Grains in Chondritic Meteorites. Nature 208, 1085–1086 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/2081085a0

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