A test of the smoothness of the elemental abundances of carbonaceous chondrites

Abstract

The identification of CI chondrite concentrations with average solar system abundances for heavy elements is based primarily on the smoothness of the CI abundance curves for odd mass nuclei. A good test of smoothness is measurement of all elements in a given mass range in the same sample with the same technique. High precision proton-induced X-ray spectra of CI chondrites yielded analyses of 17 elements (Ni through Ru, plus Fe and Pb) with precisions better than 10% for all except As, Pb, Nb, and Ru. Excellent theoretical descriptions of the spectra were obtained. Two independent estimates of precision agree well, giving confidence in the quoted errors. Intersample differences are the largest source of variability. Within these limits good agreement with literature results are obtained, except for As and Y. Although our Y values are 10 to 30% lower than previously adopted, amonoelemental s-process peak in the abundance curve at Y is still necessary. Except for Br (higher by 59% in Ivuna), there are no significant concentration differences between Orgueil and Ivuna. In general, our results confirm previous abundance curves. The abundances are exceptionally smooth and strongly decreasing in the mass 60–75 region. From mass 75–101 a smooth curve can be drawn, within limits of intersample variability, except for the Y peak. Over the whole periodic table a large number of peaks of probable nucleosynthetic origin can be identified, some understood, some not. These smoothness deviations are 10 to 30% and set an overall limit to the smoothness argument alone in justifying using CI abundances as average solar system values.

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