Isotopic variations in the rock-forming elements in meteorites

Variations in isotopic abundances of the major rock-forming elements can be used as tracers for chemical processes in the solar nebula, and may also provide links to the presolar cloud from which the solar nebula was derived. The paper reviews recent developments involving meteoritic abundances of the isotopes of O, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, and Ni). Some of the effects observed are due to mass-dependent fractionation, and some are due to interaction of isotopically distinct reservoirs, reflecting incomplete homogenization of materials with different nucleosynthetic histories.