| Abstract: | Abstract— Correlated in situ analyses of the oxygen and magnesium isotopic compositions of aluminum‐rich chondrules from unequilibrated enstatite chondrites were obtained using an ion microprobe. Among eleven aluminum‐rich chondrules and two plagioclase fragments measured for 26Al‐26Mg systematics, only one aluminum‐rich chondrule contains excess 26Mg from the in situ decay of 26Al; the inferred initial ratio (26Al/27Al)o = (6.8 ± 2.4) × 10?6 is consistent with ratios observed in chondrules from carbonaceous chondrites and unequilibrated ordinary chondrites. The oxygen isotopic compositions of five aluminum‐rich chondrules and one plagioclase fragment define a line of slope ?0.6 ± 0.1 on a three‐oxygen‐isotope diagram, overlapping the field defined by ferromagnesian chondrules in enstatite chondrites but extending to more 16O‐rich compositions with a range in δ18O of about ?12‰. Based on their oxygen isotopic compositions, aluminum‐rich chondrules in unequilibrated enstatite chondrites are probably genetically related to ferromagnesian chondrules and are not simple mixtures of materials from ferromagnesian chondrules and calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs). Relative to their counterparts from unequilibrated ordinary chondrites, aluminum‐rich chondrules from unequilibrated enstatite chondrites show a narrower oxygen isotopic range and much less resolvable excess 26Mg from the in situ decay of 26Al, probably resulting from higher degrees of equilibration and isotopic exchange during post‐crystallization metamorphism. However, the presence of 26Al‐bearing chondrules within the primitive ordinary, carbonaceous, and now enstatite chondrites suggests that 26Al was at least approximately homogeneously distributed across the chondrite‐forming region. |
