Formation of olivine-metal textures in pallasite meteorites

The olivine-metal textures of pallasites help elucidate the formation of these meteorites. Large sections of pallasites with angular olivines commonly contain olivine masses 5–30 cm in size, which appear to have been disintegrating into smaller fragments, like those dispersed through the metal. It is suggested that these masses were parts of olivine layers, which were intruded by underlying molten metal. Gravitational separation of olivine and metal was probably prevented by incipient solidification of metal.Pallasites with rounded olivines probably had a fairly similar history, but with additional annealing after metal solidification had started. Grain boundary energy was reduced by decreasing the area of metal-olivine interface and increasing the contact between touching olivines. Because of the vastly different nature of metal and olivine, their mutual interfacial energy is high and the degree of anisotropy of this energy is low. The occurrence of profuse, small faces on rounded olivines is therefore consistent with the ‘metamorphic’ origin which is proposed for rounded olivines. In many pallasites with angularolivine macrostructures, magnifications of 5–50 × reveal similar rounding effects, including aggregates of rounded olivines, and individual crystals which may be faceted.The high metal-troilite ratio of Phillips County suggests that this pallasite formed by mixing of olivine with S-rich liquid metal around 1000°C, near the Fe-FeS eutectic temperature.