Instrumental Activation Analysis of Meteorites Using Gamma-Gamma Coincidence Spectrometry

Abstract
A non-destructive procedure for the determination of iridium, sodium, nickel, cobalt, and scandium in a single meteorite sample is presented. The method utilizes neutron activation followed by gamma-gamma coincidence spectrometry. Iridium abundances are given for several meteorites and compared to values obtained by radiochemical separation methods. The non-destructive results differ significantly from previously published values for certain classes of meteorites, in particular the enstatite chondrites.