Experimental simulations of shock textures in BCC iron: implications for iron meteorites

Abstract

Neumann band in iron meteorites, which is deformation twins in kamacite (Fe–Ni alloy), has been known to be a characteristic texture indicating ancient collisions on parent bodies of meteorites. We conducted a series of shock recovery experiments on bcc iron with the projectile velocity at 1.5 km/s at various initial temperatures, room temperature, 670 K, and 1100 K, and conducted an annealing experiment on the shocked iron. We also conducted numerical simulations with the iSALE-2D code to investigate peak pressure and temperature distributions in the nontransparent targets. The effects of pressure and temperature on the formation and disappearance of the twins (Neumann band) were explored based on laboratory and numerical experiments. The twin was formed in the run products of the experiments conducted at room temperature and 670 K, whereas it was not observed in the run product formed by the impact at 1100 K. The present experiments combined with the numerical simulations revealed that the twin was formed by impacts with various shock pressures from 1.5–2 GPa to around 13 GPa. The twin in iron almost disappeared by annealing at 1070 K. The iron meteorites with Neumann bands were shocked at this pressure range and temperatures at least up to 670 K, and were not heated to the temperatures above 1070 K after the Neumann band formation.