¹Masaaki Miyahara, ²Eiji Ohtani, ^3,4Akira Yamaguchi
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2017.08.034]
¹Department of Earth and Planetary Systems Science, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8526, Japan
²Department of Earth Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
³National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo 190-8518, Japan
⁴Department of Polar Science, School of Multidisciplinary Science, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Tokyo 190-8518, Japan
Copyright Elsevier

An impact event recorded in the Northwest Africa (NWA) 8275 LL7 ordinary chondrite was investigated based on high-pressure mineralogy of pervasive shock-melt veins present in the rock. NWA 8275 consists of olivine, low-Ca pyroxene, plagioclase (albite–oligoclase composition), and minor high-Ca pyroxene, K-feldspar, phosphate minerals, metallic Fe–Ni and iron sulfide. Plagioclase and K-feldspar grains near the shock-melt veins have transformed to amorphous, although no high-pressure polymorphs of olivine and pyroxene were identified in or adjacent the shock-melt veins. Raman spectroscopy and focused ion beam (FIB)-assisted transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations reveal that plagioclase entrained around the center portion of the shock-melt veins has dissociated into a jadeite + coesite assemblage. Alternately stacked jadeite and coesite crystals occurred in the original plagioclase. On approaching the host rock/shock-melt vein, only jadeite is present. Based on the high-pressure polymorph assemblage, the shock pressure and temperature conditions recorded in the shock-melt veins are ∼3–12 GPa and ∼1973–2373 K, respectively. Following a Rankine–Hugoniot relationship, the impact velocity was at least ∼0.45–1.54 km/s. The duration of high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) conditions required for the albite dissociation reaction is estimated a maximum of ∼4–5 s using the phase transition rate of albite, implying that a body of up to ∼9–12 km across collided with the parent body of NWA 8275. The coexistence of jadeite and coesite, the latter of which rarely accompanies jadeite in shocked ordinary chondrites, as a dissociation product of albite requires relatively long duration HPHT conditions. Thus, the impact event recorded in NWA 8275 was likely caused by a larger-than-typical projectile.