Evolution of CaAl-rich bodies in the earliest solar system: growth by incorporation

Many Type B CaAl-rich inclusions (CAI's) in the Allende carbonaceous chondrite contain two types of spinel structures, “framboids” and “palisades.” Framboids are clumps of spinel grains generally <100 μm across. Experimental studies (Wark and Lovering, 1982) show that they probably formed in situ by solid state growth processes. Palisades are texturally different and consist of ovoid shells of spinel grains that appear in thin sections as long arcs or rings with diameters ranging from ～50 μm up to 2 cm. No in situ formation process seems able to explain the variety of sizes and morphologies of palisades nor the different compositions and textures of the enclosed and enclosing materials. We therefore suggest that palisades are the spinel rims of smaller, earlier-formed Type B CAI's that were incorporated into other CAI material in various ways—by capture into liquid drops, by solid condensate overgrowths and by the partial melting or welding of agglomerates containing the bodies. As some Type B bodies have been found inside Type A host material it appears that in at least some regions, and probably generally, Type A CAI's formed after Type B. We propose that Type B CAI's are residues from the heating and incomplete evaporation of interstellar dust during the accretion of the protosolar nebula, and that Type A CAI's are later condensates from completely evaporated dust whose exotic ¹⁶O-rich component became more diluted in the gas phase.