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Several low-Ni iron meteorites previously assigned to group IAB are reclassified IIICD on the basis of lower Ge, Ga, W and Ir concentrations and higher As concentrations; the low-Ni extreme of IIICD is now 62 mg/g, that of IAB is 64 mg/g. The resulting fractionation patterns in the two groups are quite similar. It has long been established that, in contrast to the magmatic iron meteorite groups, IAB and IIICD did not form by fractional crystallization of a metallic magma. Other models have been proposed, but all have serious flaws. A new model is proposed involving the formation of each iron in small pools of impact melt on a parent body consisting of material similar to the chondritic inclusions found in some IAB and IIICD irons, but initially unequilibrated. These impact melts ranged in temperatures from ~ 1190 K to ~ 1350 K. The degree of equilibration between melt and unmelted solids ranged from minimal at the lowest temperature to moderate at the highest temperature. The lowest temperature melts were near the cotectic in the Fe-Ni-S system with Ni contents of ~ 12 atom %. Upon cooling, these precipitated metal having ~ 600 mg/g Ni by equilibrium crystallization. The Ni-rich melt resulted from the melting of Ni-rich sulfides and metal in the unequilibrated chondritic parent. Low-Ni irons formed in high temperature melts near the composition of the FeS-Fe eutectic or somewhat more metal rich. We suggest that the decreasing Ge, Ga and refractory abundances with increasing Ni concentration reflect the trapping of these elements in oxide phases in the unequilibrated chondritic material, and that very little entered the Ni-rich melt parental to the Oktibbeha County iron. The remaining elements tended to have element/Ni ratios in the melts that were more or less independent of temperature. The remarkable correlation between I-Xe age of the chondritic inclusions and Ni content of the host metal is explained by a detailed evolution of (mega)regolith in which these groups originated. The most Ni-rich melts could only be generated from an unequilibrated chondrite parent; as the continuing deposition of impact energy produced increasingly higher grades of metamorphism, the maximum Ni content of the impact melts (and their subsequently precipitated metal) gradually decreased.

We describe three lithic fragments from the Lancé carbonaceous chondrite which apparently are of igneous origin and of basaltic parentage. They consist of large enstatite grains (pheno-crysts ?) which poikilitically include some olivine and abundant Fe-Ni metal and Fe sulfide blebs. These enstatites are set into a matrix of partly ophitic and partly porphyritic plagioclase (~ an71) and interstitial clinopyroxene and clinopyroxene plus plagioclase intergrowths. Mineral compositions are highly variable and reflect a complex genesis. Olivine compositions range from fo5 to fo60 and sometimes exhibit compositional zoning. Enstatites are mostly of en 98 com-position with some Fe-enrichment towards grain surfaces and cracks. Plagioclases have about an71 but mostly are altered to nonstoichiometric high-alkali compositions (with original Al/Si ratios corresponding to ~ an 70) or are partly replaced by K-free nepheline. Generally two clinopyroxenes are present within the plagiophyric portions of the fragments: One low Fe/Mg augite (~ en53 wo44) rich in Ti, Al, Cr, and Mn (Fe/Mn ≦ 2) and a ferrosalite (~ en15 wo47) poor in Ti, Cr, and Mn (Fe/Mn ~ 100). One fragment also contains spinel (hercynite) which apparently is xenocrystic in nature. Our investigation indicates: (1) The fragments are of igneous origin. (2) The original melt was of basaltic composition, crystallizing the primary mineral association ol + en + plag + low-Fe augite. (3) During crystallization the melt suffered strong reduction which led to segregation of Fe-Ni droplets from the melt and which continuously lowered the Fe/Mn ratio of successively crystallizing silicates from nearly chondritic (~ 100) to 0.6. (4) Probably after incorporation into the Lancé breccia the fragments suffered to different degrees metasomatic alterations which were caused by the addition of Na, K, and Fe to the system. The origin of the pre-Lancé basaltic melt cannot yet be established.