[meteorite-list] Gold and Iridium content ofmeteorites(especiallyirons)

From: Matson, Robert D. <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2011 11:05:19 -0700
Message-ID: <9180F6B27399C541B10663E21C8BDE9202E2544F_at_0461-its-exmb09.us.saic.com>

Hi All,

I'll have to back Doug on this one -- it is more likely that a transcription
error or font change might occur than that one iron meteorite should have an
anomalously high gold content by three orders of magnitude. I've seen
milligrams and micrograms often confused in technical papers, probably as
a consequence of a simple font change. (Remember that the letter "m" is a
mu when using a Greek font.) --Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Jason Utas
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 10:13 PM
To: Meteorite-list
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Gold and Iridium content ofmeteorites(especiallyirons)

Hello Doug, All,
We're looking at an iron meteorite, which is a piece of material in
which predominantly heavy elements have been sorted and accumulated
through processes that took place over billions of years. Saying that
gold is uncommon in the solar system doesn't mean much; we know that
differentiation has created meteorites with upwards of 50% Ni, so
anomalous concentrations of various heavy elements don't strike me as
strange at all. NWA 859 (Taza) is a perfect example with an average
of ~2200 ppm Ge (observed range of 1500-5000 ppm).

One might as well state that it is unlikely for iron meteorites to
exist at all because hydrogen and helium make up such a large portion
of the mass in the universe/solar system:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elements#Abundance_of_elements_in_the_Universe

I'd prefer to trust the basic analytical work of one of the world's
foremost experts on iron meteorites in this case. Of course, errors
do make it into the bulletin with some regularity, often due to human
error when the data is being transferred.
If in doubt, contact the folks who manage the bulletin.
Regards,
Jason
Received on Tue 04 Oct 2011 02:05:19 PM PDT