Nepheline formation in chondrite parent bodies: Verification through hydrothermal and heating experiments

Abstract

To verify the hypothesis that nepheline in chondrites formed by metasomatism in meteorite parent bodies, we performed hydrothermal experiments of melilite and plagioclase and heating experiments of Na zeolites. From our results, we propose that nepheline in chondrites formed by a two-stage process: (1) formation of Na zeolites by hydrothermal alteration, and (2) transformation of the Na zeolites to nepheline due to heating after the solutions were lost.