Oxygen reservoirs in the early solar nebula inferred from an Allende CAI.

Ultraviolet laser microprobe analyses of a calcium-aluminum-rich inclusion (CAI) from the Allende meteorite suggest that a line with a slope of exactly 1.00 on a plot of delta (17)O against delta (18)O represents the primitive oxygen isotope reservoir of the early solar nebula. Most meteorites are enriched in (17)O and (18)O relative to this line, and their oxygen isotope ratios can be explained by mass fractionation or isotope exchange initiating from the primitive reservoir. These data establish a link between the oxygen isotopic composition of the abundant ordinary chondrites and the primitive (16)O-rich component of CAIs.