Formation of the Mont Dieu IIE non magmatic iron meteorite, and origin of its silicate inclusions.

Recently, the Mont Dieu meteorite was confirmed as a fine octahedrite IIE iron meteorite [1-3]. The original fragments in the collection of the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris show rust damage. The much better preserved ~450 kg frag-ment of the non-magmatic iron (NMI) Mont Dieu II meteorite preserved at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels was studied, with special emphasis on the silicate inclusions. The good state of preservation of this large fragment provides a unique way to study the Mont Dieu meteorites. The metal phase shows a clear widmanstätten texture, composed essentially of kamacite, with fine lines of Ni-rich tae-nite, and locally troilite associated with schreibersite. The study focuses on the abundant large, rounded, brownish silicate inclusions present in Mont Dieu (Fig. 1). These were studied under SEM/EDX, major and trace elements were determined by ICP-OES & ICP-MS, and oxygen isotopes were measured.

[1] Grossman, J. N. 1997 Meteorit. Planet. Sci. Supp. 31: A159-166. [2] Desrousseaux, A. et al. 1996 Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 31: A36. [3] Van den Borre, N. et al. 2007 Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 42: A5234.