Collescipoli - An unusual fusion crust glass

An electron microprobe study was conducted on glass fragments taken from the fusion crust and an internal glass-lined vein in the H-5 chondrite Collescipoli. Microprobe analyses of the glasses revealed an unusual fusion crust composition, and analyses of glass from inside the meteorite showed compositions expected for a melt of an H-group chondrite. Studies of fusion crusts by previous workers, e.g., Krinov and Ramdohr, showed that fusion crusts contain large amounts of magnetite and other oxidized minerals. The Collescipoli fusion crusts do contain these minerals, but they also contain relatively large amounts of reduced metal, sulphide, and a sodium-rich glass. This study seems to indicate that Collescipoli preserved an early type of fusion crust. Oxidation was incomplete in the fusion crust melt that drained into a crack. From this study it is concluded that fusion crust formation does not invariably result in complete oxidation of metal and sulphide phases.