Crystallization history of metal particles in Apollo 16 rake samples
Electron microprobe analyses for Fe, Co, Ni, S, and P have been carried out on the metal and associated troilite, schreibersite, and rare cohenite in the Apollo 16 rake samples from Stations 1, 4, and 13. The Co/Ni ratios of most of the metal are within the limits of meteoritic metal as defined by Goldstein and Yakowitz (1971). The large abundance of schreibersite in all of the lithic types except the poikilitic rocks suggests that much of it may be of lunar origin. The near-absence of schreibersite in the poikilitic rocks may be a result of P diffusion from the metal to the surrounding silicate at low temperature. Application of the compositional data for the coexisting metal-schreibersite pairs to isotherms in the system Fe-Ni-P indicates a sequence of progressively lower temperatures of equilibration (and probably a corresponding sequence of slower cooling rates) of these phases from the devitrified glasses, to the mesostasis-rich rocks, to the diabases, to the poikilitic rocks.