Moderately volatile siderophiles in ordinary chondrites

The contents of the moderately volatile elements Ga, Ge, Cu and Sb in ordinary chondrites give us some clues with regard to the metal-silicate fractionation process. Their concentration in coexisting magnetic and non-magnetic portions of members of each ordinary chondrite group will be discussed. Germanium and Sb are mostly siderophilic, but Ga is strongly lithophilic in unequilibrated chondrites; its partition coefficient between magnetic and non-magnetic portions is positively correlated with petrologic type in L and LL chondrites, but not in H4–6 chondrites. From 25 to 50% of the total Cu is found in the non-magnetic fraction of chondrites, but there is no correlation between Cu content and petrologic type. The abundances of Ga, Cu and Sb (relative to Si) are constant in ordinary chondrites, independent of the amount of metal present, indicating that these elements were not in solid solution in the metal phase of chondrites when the metal-silicate fractionation process occurred. Germanium, which is the most volatile among the four elements analyzed, is more abundant in H than in L and LL chondrites, indicating that it was fractionated by this process. Nebular oxidation processes can be responsible for the behavior of Ga if this element was in oxidized form when loss of metal occurred, but cannot explain the results for Cu and Sb which are predicted to condense as metals and accrete mostly in metallic form. It is possible that Cu and Sb, upon condensation, did not form solid solutions with metallic Ni-Fe until after the separation of metal from silicates took place.