The Keck+Magellan Survey for Lyman Limit Absorption II: A Case Study on
  Metallicity Variations
  We present an absorption line analysis of the Lyman limit system (LLS) at
z=3.55 in our Magellan/MIKE spectrum of PKS2000-330. Our analysis of the Lyman
limit and full HI Lyman series constrains the total HI column density of the
LLS (N_HI = 10^[18.0 +/- 0.25] cm^{-2} for b_HI >= 20 km/s) and also the N_HI
values of the velocity subsystems comprising the absorber. We measure ionic
column densities for metal-line transitions associated with the subsystems and
use these values to constrain the ionization state (>90% ionized) and relative
abundances of the gas. We find an order of magnitude dispersion in the
metallicities of the subsystems, marking the first detailed analysis of
metallicity variations in an optically thick absorber. The results indicate
that metals are not well mixed within the gas surrounding high $z$ galaxies.
Assuming a single-phase photoionization model, we also derive an N_H-weighted
metallicity, <[Si/H]> = -1.66 +/- 0.25, which matches the mean metallicity in
the neutral ISM in high z damped Lya systems (DLAs). Because the line density
of LLSs is ~10 times higher than the DLAs, we propose that the former dominate
the metal mass-density at z~3 and that these metals reside in the galaxy/IGM
interface. Considerations of a multi-phase model do not qualitatively change
these conclusions. Finally, we comment on an anomalously large O^0/Si^+ ratio
in the LLS that suggests an ionizing radiation field dominated by soft UV
sources (e.g. a starburst galaxy). Additional abundance analysis is performed
on the super-LLS systems at z=3.19.
