Abstract
Discontinuous precipitation reactions involve the growth of stable phases behind a grain boundary migrating into a supersaturated solid-solution1, and have been synthesized in Fe,Ni alloys at temperatures ⩾500 °C (ref. 2). Axon and Grokhovsky3 have recently described localized, low temperature (350–400 °C) discontinuous precipitation reactions of the type α→[α + γ] (ref. 2) occurring naturally in initially slowly cooled α-Fe,Ni (kamacite) in the Richardton H-group ordinary chondrite. In this further study of the same meteorite we describe a complementary discontinuous precipitation reaction in zoned γ-Fe,Ni (taenite) which has produced plessite (α+ γ-Fe,Ni). Microscopic discontinuous precipitation reactions in Richardton metal occurred at lower temperatures (350 °C) and, in the case of zoned γ-taenite, at higher Ni contents than those synthesized in the laboratory2. We suggest that discontinuous precipitation may be an important mechanism for the production of plessite in strained then annealed, or shock reheated, meteorites.
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Grokhovsky, V., Bevan, A. Plessite formation by discontinuous precipitation reaction from γ-Fe,Ni in Richardton (H5) ordinary chondrite. Nature 301, 322–324 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/301322a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/301322a0
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