Acid-resistant mineral fractions of four chondrites were prepared by dissolving the meteorites in HF-HCl and were analyzed for He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe by mass spectrometry. Although they comprise only 0.1--22% of the meteorites, these residues contained up to 80% of the total noble gases. High enrichments generally correlated with high Cr contents of the residues. To determine the distribution of noble gas components among individual minerals, several residues were examined in more detail by techniques such as stepwise heating or selective destruction of individual phases. In the Murchison C2 chondrite some 80% of the trapped Ar, Kr, and Xe and about 50% of the fission Xe reside in an HNO3-soluble phase ('Q', presumably a mixture of Fe-Ni and Fe-Cr sulfides). Q also contains a trapped Ne component of 20Ne/22Ne=6.8. Chromite contains most of the He and Ne of distinctly different isotopic composition (20Ne/22Ne=8.64) and lesser amounts of heavier gases. The remaining 10--20% of the gases is contained in the organic polymer. The chromite fraction contains Kr and Xe strongly enriched in presumably fissiogenic heavy isotopes; the Xe is also enriched in light isotopes. Nominal fission spectra of Kr and Xe are identical to those for Allende for the same set of assumptions but can be varied markedly by assuming more fractionated compositions for the poorly known trapped component. The chromite fraction is strikingly enriched in spallogenic 21Ne, by a factor of 15 relative to the bulk meteorite. No wholly satisfactory explanation is available for this enrichment; conceivably, it may be due to a spinel impurity that experienced a presolar charged particle irradiation. The gas contents of the Murchison minerals are about 1 order of magnitude higher than those of the corresponding minerals in Allende. This may imply either a higher pressure or a lower temperature in the region of formation, more likely the former. The Ornans residue (chromite, presumably also Q and carbonaceous matter) was more than a hundredfold enriched in heavy noble gases relative to the bulk meterorite. A trapped Ne component of 20Ne/22Ne=9.13 also emerged, no longer being masked by spallogenic Ne in the bulk meteorite. The Karoonda residue (~95% pentlandite) was less enriched in trapped gases, but a stepwise heating experiment showed that the gases were contained mainly in trace minerals of high release temperature (1300¿--1600¿C), not in pentlandite (release temperature, 700¿--1000¿C). The Abee sample (mainly carbon) was the least enriched of the four residues but still showed an enhancement in trapped gases over spallogenic ones. |