ISOTOPE GEOCHEMISTRY OF BORON IN MANTLE ROCKS, TEKTITES AND METEORITES

Recent ion microprobe studies of fresh oceanic basalt glasses and chondrules from primitive meteorites give an overview of the distribution of boron isotopes in the mantle and in extra-terrestrial rocks. After removal of secondary boron isotope variations due to interactions between mantle melts and the oceanic crust, the primitive mantle is found to have a constant delta(11)B value of -10 +/- 2 parts per thousand, similar to that of the bulk continental crust. In contrast, large isotopic Variations between -50 and +40 parts per thousand are present at the micron scale in meteoritic chondrules which are among the most primitive objects of the solar system. These isotopic variations imply that a significant part of the boron of the solar system was synthesized in the presolar cloud, likely by spallation reactions between low-energy cosmic rays and nebular hydrogen. These heterogeneities were partly preserved in chondrules which formed early in the evolution of the solar system but are not observed for the silicate Earth implying an efficient mixing just before or during the accretion of the Earth.