Xenon in the Bruderheim meteorite

Gas samples used to determine the isotopic composition of xenon, obtained by vacuum melting samples of the Bruderheim meteorite, were analyzed in a ‘static’ mass spectrometer. The xenon content was accurately determined by means of calibrated quantities of Xe128 introduced into the high vacuum extraction system prior to melting. Samples of atmospheric xenon of approximately the same size as the meteoritic xenon samples were prepared from aliquots of air and used for comparison purposes. The results of the mass spectrometric analyses are presented in Tables 1 and 2. Table 1 gives the content of ‘atmospheric’ xenon and ‘excess’ Xe129, with the subtraction of atmospheric xenon from meteoritic xenon based on Xe130. Table 2 gives a comparison between the isotopic abundances of meteoritic xenon and atmospheric xenon expressed in the following way: δi=(XeiXe130)meteorite−(XeiXe130)atmosphere