Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Keil, Klaus.
Based on optical microscopy and electron microprobe analyses of mafic minerals, six previously undescribed or poorly known ordinary chondrites from Texas were classified into compositional groups, petrologic types, and shock facies. These meteorites are Junction, L5d; Anton, H5b; Venus, H4d; Dalhart, H5a; Rosebud, H5c; and Cranfills Gap, H6c.
SEM and EMPA were used to determine the mineral contents of four EH3 chondrites. All four showed the dominant enstatite peak, Fs 0-5, with 4-8 percent of FeO-rich pyroxene with Fs 5-20. Among the 542 objects found to contain high-FeO silicates, 18 were chondrules, 381 were rimmed or unrimmed grains, and 143 were aggregates. The high-FeO silicates in these objects are very largely pyroxene with Fs 5-23. Large grains of both FeO-rich and FeO-poor silicates were found to be present in the FeO-rich chondrules. This fact, together with the absence of clasts of FeO-rich chondritic material in the EH3 chondrites, suggests that FeO-rich grains were introduced before or during chondrule formation. It is concluded that FeO-rich and FeO-poor silicates were both present in the nebular region where E chondrites originated.
The validity of an onion shell model (OSM) for chondrite parent asteroids was assessed using metallographic cooling rates (MCR) derived from the compositions of metallic Fe-Ni grains. The hypothesis evaluated was that the hottest materials in chondrites would have been buried the deepest and cooled the slowest. The survey covered breccia from regolith and 13 different chondrites. The MCRs agreed well with cooling rates predicted by fission-track thermometry and Ar-40/Ar-39 ages. The OSM predicts an inverse correlation between the cooling rate and the petrographic type. Low correlations found between the MCRs and petrographic type indicate that chondrite parent asteroids were not assembled with onion shell structures.
Enstatite achondrites (aubrites) were not derived from known enstatite chondrites by melting and fractionation on one and the same parent body, for these and other reasons: (1) There is no satisfactory mechanism for fractionating metal plus troilite in enstatite chondrites to form these phases in different proportions and with different Ti contents in aubrites. (2) Many enstatite chondrites and aubrites are regolith or fragmental breccias, but clasts of one within the other have not been found. (3) Cosmic ray exposure ages of the two groups are difficult to explain if they are from the same parent body, but are easy to explain if they are from different parent bodies. Siderophile element abundances in metal from the Mt. Egerton meteorite, which consists of enstatite and metallic Fe, Ni, preclude it from being a complementary differentiate of the aubrites. Rather, it appears that Mt. Egerton was formed from the same source material as enstatite chondrites, but the components were mixed in different proportions.
The olivines and pyroxenes from twenty-nine ordinary chondrites from Roosevelt County, New Mexico are examined. The mineralogical properties of the chondrites studied are described. Correlations between mineral compositions and petrologic type and between petrologic type and bulk chemistry are analyzed. It is observed that mean CaO concentrations in olivine show significant variations among equilibrated chondrites, but these are not correlated with petrologic type; the degree of heterogeneity of FeO concentrations in olivines of types 4-6 is not correlated with the degree of metamorphism; and mean FeO concentrations of silicates show average increases of 3-5 percent from type 4 to type 6 in each group.
The emplacement, cooling, and alteration of the suevite at the Ries Crater are discussed. The clay mineralogy of the suevite is examined in terms of the cooling of the suevite and the importance of hydrothermal alteration. It is observed that the suevite contains large number of chimneylike degassing pipes, and that the suevite outside of the crater rim contains about 15 wt pct clay. The vertical channels or degassing pipes related to the fall-out of suevite are described. The relationship between the formation of the impact deposits on earth and Mars and the origin of Martian soil, and the emplacement and alteration of impact ejecta is studied.