Mössbauer Studies on Kapoeta Meteorite

Abstract

Mössbauer Spectroscopy in the temperature range (20 – 300 K) has been carried out on an old fall, sudanese meteorite; Kapoeta. The first chapter covers the general background of meteorites, the second one the theoretical basis of Mössbauer Effect Spectroscopy (MES), whereas the third chapter deals with the experimental set-up and the data processing. Experimental results obtained are collected in chapter four. The results obtained for the spectra of the scanned temperature range showed paramagnetic doublets, which were assigned to Fe2+ in pyroxent sites. The temperature dependence of the spectra ruled out the presence of olivine and assigned the orthopyroxene to sites Ml and M2. The lattice dynamical parameters of the two sites were investigated from both the temperature dependence of the isomer shift and the area under the resonance curve. The effective masses for the two sites were found to be 69.8 and 72.2 a. m .u. which are nearly equal whereas the Debye temperatures were found to be 496.9 and 398.1 K which are almost overlapping within the experimental errors.