MINERALOGY OF SILICATE INCLUSIONS OF THE COLOMERA IIE IRON AND CRYSTALLIZATION OF CR-DIOPSIDE AND ALKALI FELDSPAR FROM A PARTIAL MELT

Abstract

We studied the mineralogy, mineral chemistry, and compositions of 48 interior silicate inclusions and a large K-rich surface inclusion from the Colomera IIE iron meteorite. Common minerals in the interior silicate inclusions are Cr diopside and Na plagioclase (albite). They are often enclosed by or coexist with albitic glasses with excess silica and minor Fe-Mg components. This mineral assemblage is similar to the ''andesitic'' material found in the Caddo County IAB iron meteorite for which a partial melt origin has been proposed. The fairly uniform compositions of Cr diopside (Ca44Mg46Fe10) and Na plagioclase (Or2.5Ab90.0An7.5 to Or3.5Ab96.1An0.4) in Colomera interior inclusions and the angular boundaries between minerals and metal suggest that diopside and plagioclase partially crystallized under near-equilibrium conditions from a common melt before emplacement into molten metal. The melt-crystal assemblage has been called ''crystal mush.'' The bulk compositions of the individual composite inclusions form an array between the most diopside-rich inclusion and plagioclase. This is consistent only with a simple mechanical mixing relationship, not a magmatic evolution series. We propose a model in which partly molten metal and crystal mush were mixed together by impact on the IIE parent body. Other models involving impact melting of the chondritic source material followed by growth of diopside and plagioclase do not easily explain near equilibrium growth of diopside and Na plagioclase, followed by rapid cooling. In the K-rich surface inclusion, K feldspar, orthopyroxene, and olivine were found together with diopside for the first time. K feldspar (sanidine, Or92.7Ab7.2An0.1 to Or87.3Ab11.0An1.7) occurs in an irregular veinlike region in contact with large orthopyroxene crystals of nearly uniform composition (Ca1.3Mg80.5Fe17.8 to Ca3.1Mg78.1Fe18.9) and intruding into a relict olivine with deformed-oval shape. Silica and subrounded Cr diopside are present within such K-feldspar regions. Some enrichments of the albite component have been detected at the end of curved elongated nodules of K feldspar intruded into the mafic silicates. The textural relationships suggest that a K-rich melt was present. A K-rich melt is neither the first melt of a chondritic system nor a differentiation product of a Na-rich partial melt of chondritic material. The K-rich material may have originated as a fluid phase that leached K from surrounding materials and segregated by a mechanism similar to that proposed for the Na-rich inclusions.