Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) Study of Micro-Deformation and High-Pressure Phase Assemblages in Chondritic Shock Melt Veins

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Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) Study of Micro-Deformation and High-Pressure Phase Assemblages in Chondritic Shock Melt Veins Poster
Poster Session
B
Poster Number
12
Project Author(s)
Vincent Mugica
Institution
Portland State University
Project Description

Shock melt veins (SMVs) in meteorites deserve study as they contain high-pressure mineral assemblages that allow workers to reconstruct the shock conditions of the impact events responsible for their formation. Thus, the study of meteorite SMVs provides a window into the dominant processes operating during the extreme pressures and temperatures of a natural impact event. This study combines novel electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) methods with shock thermobarometric methods to report: (1) EBSD large area map (LAM) and targeted map (TM) data from Tenham (L6) can be correlated with optical microscopic (OM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) data. (2) grain orientation spread (GOS) LAM data show deformation near the Tenham SMV in a right lateral style supporting friction-induced shearing models for SMV formation. (3) the high-pressure mineral assemblage in the Tenham SMV suggests shock pressures and temperatures of ~17-25 GPa and ≥1700-2000°C, respectively. (4) Tenham host olivine syn-deformational temperatures of 654 °C ± 102°C are broadly consistent with modeled L chondritic bulk hugoniots for impacts at ~25 GPa and an excursion of temperature only for what we would expect during an impact of a cold parent body (L Chondrite Parent Body impact event that occurred ~466 Mya). (5) the calculated skewness ratio of 0.95 suggests a cold post-impact environment for Tenham and no annealing of olivine. (6) a previously unreported anomalous texture on Tenham host enstatite grains entrained in the SMV show high pressure majorite-pyrope grains nucleating on enstatite surfaces suggestive of enstatite disequilibrium with a high-pressure shock melt vein system.

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