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Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis of Metal Phases in Meteorites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

D. B. Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Lehigh University, BethlehemPA18015
J. I. Goldstein
Affiliation:
College of Engineering, University of Massachusetts, AmherstMA01063
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Extract

Meteorites are remnants of the primordial material from which the solar system condensed. Most meteorites originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and fell to earth when their orbits were disturbed by collisions. Metal phases are present in all types of meteorites and are alloys of Fe and Ni containing S and P. The study of metal meteorites has yielded valuable information about the early thermal history of the solar system, since their heat treatment has been preserved in the microstructure and microchemistry of the meteorites and can be discerned by electron microscopy and microanalysis. A full understanding of the structure and chemistry of meteorites requires detailed knowledge of the Fe-Ni, Fe-Ni-S and Fe-Ni-P phase diagrams and determination of these diagrams has been carried out over more than three decades of electron-beam analysis by the authors.

Type
Microscopy of Ceramics and Minerals
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

References:

1.Goldstein, J. I. and Ogilvie, R. E., Geochim. et Cosmochim. Acta, 27 (1963) 623CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Yang, C. W., Williams, D.B. and Goldstein, J. I., Geochim. et Cosmochim. Acta, 61 (1997) 2943CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3. The authors wish to thank NASA for several decades of funding through the Geochemistry Program and generations of graduate students and post-doctoral research associates who carried out the work.Google Scholar