Exploring the Utilization of Low-Pressure, Piston-Cylinder Experiments to Determine the Bulk Compositions of Finite, Precious Materials

Abstract: Determining the bulk composition of precious materials with a finite mass (e.g., meteorite samples) is extremely important in the fields of Earth and Planetary Science. From meteorite studies we are able to place constraints on large scale planetary processes like global differentiation and subsequent volcanism, as well as smaller scale processes like crystallization in a magma chamber or sedimentary compaction at the surface. However, with meteorite samples in particular, far too often we ar…