Chemistry, small-scale inhomogeneity, and formation of moldavites as condensates from sands vaporized by the Ries impact

Abstract

The formation of the Ries impact and the moldavites have identical radiogenic ages of 14.3 Ma. According to this conformity in age moldavites are generally regarded as products of the Ries impact. This paper, which is divided into two sections, deals with two aspects of the moldavite-forming process: the formation of moldavite bodies by accretion of small precursors, and the physical and chemical conditions under which these primary units originated from sands which covered the Ries impact site. First, the chemical inhomogeneity of moldavite glasses is investigated in sections of 11 moldavites, using back scattered electron (BSE) images and electron microprobe analyses on 0.4–2.7 mm long traverses. Schlieren and lechatelierite particles are interpreted as relics of small, chemically different precursors, which accumulated to larger moldavite bodies at temperatures too low to be efficient for mixing. The patterns of schlieren and lechatelierite inclusions represent two successive rheological regimes: Small agglomerating primary melt units were extended into thin lamellae and threads under conditions of laminar flow. As evidenced by folded textures, these fluidal arrays were later plastically deformed under conditions of compressional stress. To elucidate the production of the primary melt units by the Ries impact, in the second section the geologic situation of the Ries area is considered with regard to possible source materials. The site of the Ries impact, situated at the northern border of the pre-Alpine Molasse basin, was covered at the time of the impact by fluviatile sediments of the lower sequence of the Obere Süßwasser-Molasse (OSM) Formation of Middle Miocene age, consisting of sands, marly sands and clays. Chemical analyses for major and trace elements of 38 moldavites from Bohemia and Moravia, and of 28 samples of the OSM Formation, collected from outcrops and drill holes, immediately south of the Ries crater and south of the Danube, show chemical conformity of moldavites and sand samples with regard to the major parameters SiO 2,Al 2O 3+ FeO, and MgO + CaO, indicating that these sands were the essential source material of moldavites. But, differences in contents of individual major and trace elements between moldavites and sands show that the formation of moldavites from sands involved a specific chemical differentiation which can not be explained by selective vaporization or melting, nor by selective condensation from melt or vapeur. Because large ions were enriched and small ones depleted in moldavites, the ionic radius has controlled the distribution of elements between sands and moldavites. We assume that moldavites originated from a plasma that the impact produced at its encounter with the surficial sand formation at the impact site, and that the primary units formed as early condensates in which large ions were preferentially trapped.