Systematic compositional variations in the Cape York iron meteorite

Concentrations of Re, Ir and Au are nearly constant within individual masses of the Cape York IIIAB iron meteorite, but differences between masses can be as large as a factor of 2, the extremes being Savik (5.1 μg/g Ir) and Agpalilik (2.7 μg/g Ir). The S concentration shows a still larger range from 13 mg/g in Agpalilik to 1.4 mg/g in Savik. A relatively large compositional hiatus between Dog and Agpalilik probably reflects inadequate sampling of the original material. Concentrations of Ir vary by ~10% and Au by ~3% between the ends of an 85-cm section from the Agpalilik mass of Cape York, but other sections through Agpalilik show smaller variations. These concentration ranges are much larger than expected from radial crystallization of a moderately large (radius 10 s of km) core. These variations in the Agpalilik mass may reflect dendritic crystallization, or they may have resulted from the process that produced the large concentration range among the Cape York masses. Large gradients in Re and Ir and small gradients in Ni and Au were also observed in samples within 2 cm of a large (100 cm ³) troilite nodule. These gradients may reflect rapidly changing solid/liquid distribution coefficients during the final crystallization of S-rich liquid. The compositional trends among the various masses can either be explained by mixing of disparate end members followed by diffusive homogenization on a scale of m, or by dendritic crystallization on the ceiling of the IIIAB magma chamber. The mixing of a solid similar in composition to Savik with a liquid in equilibrium with this solid yields a good match to the observed trends, in which case Agpalilik consists of a mixture of 64% liquid and 36% solids. The bulk S content of the IIIAB core is calculated to be 14 mg/g on the basis of this model.