The petrology of chondrules in the Hallingeberg meteorite

Abstract

Petrographic study of 124 chondrules in the Hallingeberg (L-3) chondrite and electron probe microanalyses of olivine and low-Ca pyroxene in 96 of them reveal patterns of variation like those encountered previously in Sharps (H-3). Chondrule mineralogy, mineral composition, and the incidence of shock-related textures vary systematically with chondrule type. This fact and evidence of recrystallization in at least a fourth of the chondrules studied indicate that the pre-accretion histories of chondrules included complex and overlapping episodes of magmatic crystallization, burial, metamorphism and exhumation, in which impact shock was heavily involved. Data for Hallingeberg and Sharps suggest that orthopyroxene accompanies or replaces clinoenstatite in some chondrules and that its presence is due, in part at least, to pre-accretion recrystallization. A comparison of modes for chondrules in Sharps and Hallingeberg shows the former to contain more olivine, on the average, than the latter. It appears that the mean compositions of chondrules in H- and L-group chondrites reflect bulk chemical differences between the two groups, and that chondrule formation followed the siderophile fractionation which differentiated H-, L- and LL-group ordinary chondrites. © 1974 Springer-Verlag.