We present results of petrographic, mineralogical, and chemical investigations of three Chelyabinsk meteorite fragments. Three distinct lithologies were identified: light S3 LL5, dark S4-S5 LL5 material, and opaque fine-grained former impact melt. Olivinespinel thermometry revealed an equilibration temperature of 703 AE 23°C for the light lithology. All plagioclase seems to be secondary, showing neither shock-induced fractures nor sulfide-metal veinlets. Feldspathic glass can be observed showing features of extensive melting and, in the dark lithology, as maskelynite, lacking melt features and retaining grain boundaries of former plagioclase. Olivine of the dark lithology shows planar deformation features. Impact melt is dominated by Mg-rich olivine and resembles whole-rock melt. Melt veins (<2 mm) are connected to narrower veinlets. Melt vein textures are similar to pegmatite textures showing chilled margins, a zone of inward-grown elongated crystals and central vugs, suggesting crystallization from supercooled melt. Sulfide-metal droplets indicate liquid immiscibility of both silicate and sulfide as well as sulfide and metal melts. Impact melting may have been an important factor for differentiation of primitive planetary bodies. Graphite associated with micrometer-sized melt inclusions in primary olivine was detected by Raman mapping. Carbon isotopic studies of graphite could be applied to test a possible presolar origin.

The processes involved in the magmatic-hydrothermal transition in rare-element pegmatite crystallization are obscure, and the role of hydrothermal mechanisms in producing economic concentrations of rare elements such as tantalum remains contentious. To decipher the paragenetic information encoded in zoned minerals crystallized during the magmatichydrothermal transition, we applied SEM-EDS and LA-ICP-MS chemical mapping to muscovite-and columbite-group minerals (CGM) from a rare-element pegmatite of the albite-spodumene subtype from Aclare, southeast Ireland. We present a three-stage model for the magmatic-hydrothermal transition based on petrography, imaging and quantification of rare-element (Li, B, Rb, Nb, Sn, Cs, Ba, Ta, W, U) zoning, integrated with geochemical modeling and constraints from published literature. Stage I marks the end of purely magmatic crystallization from a peraluminous granitic melt.

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Compared to average crustal abundances, high field strength elements (HFSEs) including Zr, Nb, Hf, Ta, and U are commonly enriched in rare element pegmatites. Albite-spodumene pegmatites may show economic grades of these elements, along with Sn, primarily in oxide minerals. Processes leading to enrichment and precipitation of HFSEs in these rocks are not well understood. Here, we characterize the textures and geochemistry of minerals of HFSEs, tin, and base metals in the Leinster albite-spodumene pegmatites. We use these data to infer processes for enrichment and precipitation of these metals during pegmatite crystallization, especially subsolidus processes. The Leinster albite-spodumene pegmatites are located within the East Carlow deformation zone on the eastern flank of the Caledonian S-type Leinster batholith, southeast Ireland. The final crystallization stages of these pegmatites are characterized by autometasomatism and hydrothermal overprint leading to in situ greisenization and precipitation of massive, commonly replacive, albitites. Cassiterite and HFSE minerals (columbite-tantalite and zircon) crystallized predominantly during these late stages. Crystals of HFSE minerals that precipitated during the early magmatic stages commonly exhibit evidence of resorption and additional growth during later stages. Others, such as microlite and uraninite, only crystallized during metasomatism or from hydrothermal fluids. Base metal sulfides are among the last precipitates from these fluids. We present a detailed paragenetic sequence for the Leinster albite-spodumene pegmatites and show that late-stage aqueous fluids transported HFSEs, especially after all the melt had crystallized. Tantalum enrichment seems to have been controlled by processes affecting the entire crystallizing medium, as opposed to fractional crystallization of columbite-tantalite. The textures and parageneses described in the present and our previous work are well explained by element partitioning between coexisting liquids with characteristics similar to those described in published melt-melt-fluid immiscibility models for rare element pegmatites but do not exclude other models for early-stage pegmatite evolution. The chemical and textural features of columbite-tantalite and cassiterite in the Leinster albite-spodumene pegmatites are seen in similar rare element pegmatites and rare metal granites elsewhere, suggesting wide applicability of the processes interpreted for Leinster. Late-stage processes of the type that affected the lithium pegmatites at Leinster may either enhance or reduce economic potential: ore metal tenor may be increased because late-stage columbite-tantalite is generally richer in Ta, and/or ore metals may be lost from pegmatites to country rocks. Lithium pegmatites, including the ones at Leinster, are commonly associated spatially with Sn-W veins and greisens and share some geochemical and textural features, such as evidence of widespread albitization. We propose that lithium pegmatites are transitional products regarding the interrelated dimensions time, temperature, and depth in S-type granite-related Li-Sn-W mineralizing systems.