We report Zn abundances for 18 very metal-poor stars studied in our previous work , covering the metallicity range -3.2 < [ Fe/H ] < -2.5 .
The [ Zn/Fe ] values of most stars show an increasing trend with decreasing [ Fe/H ] in this metallicity range , confirming the results found by previous studies .
However , the extremely metal-poor star BS 16920–017 ( [ Fe/H ] = -3.2 ) exhibits a significantly high [ Zn/Fe ] ratio ( [ Zn/Fe ] = +1.0 ) .
Comparison of the chemical abundances of this object with HD 4306 , which has similar atmospheric parameters to BS 16920–017 , clearly demonstrates a deficiency of \alpha elements and neutron-capture elements in this star , along with enhancements of Mn and Ni , as well as Zn .
The association with a hypernova explosion that has been proposed to explain the high Zn abundance ratios found in extremely metal-poor stars is a possible explanation , although further studies are required to fully interpret the abundance pattern of this object .