Astrophysics of CAI formation as revealed by silicon isotope LA-MC-ICPMS of an igneous CAI

Silicon isotope ratios of a typical CAI from the Leoville carbonaceous chondrite, obtained in situ by laser ablation MC-ICPMS, together with existing Mg/Mg data, reveal a detailed picture of the astrophysical setting of CAI melting and subsequent heating. Models for the chemical and isotopic effects of evaporation of the molten CAI are used to produce a univariant relationship between PH2 and time during melting. The result shows that this CAI was molten for a cumulative time of no more than 70 days and probably less than 15 days depending on temperature. The object could have been molten for an integrated time of just a few hours if isotope ratio zoning was eliminated after melting by high subsolidus temperatures (e.g., N1300 K) for ∼500 yr. In all cases subsolidus heating sufficient to produce diffusion-limited isotope fractionation at the margin of the solidified CAI is required. These stable isotope data point to a two-stage history for this igneous CAI involving melting for a cumulative timescale of hours to months followed by subsolidus heating for years to hundreds of years. The thermobarometric history deduced from combining Si and Mg isotope ratio data implicates thermal processing in the disk, perhaps by passage through shockwaves, following melting. This study underscores the direct link between the meaning of stable isotope ratio zoning, or lack thereof, and the inferred astrophysical setting of melting and subsequent processing of CAIs. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.