Lithification of gas-rich meteorites

Abstract

High-voltage electron microscopy has been used to study the fine structure of four gas-rich meteorites, with particular reference to the cementation and compaction processes that have affected the fine-grained matrix. The observed features are compared with similar effects in lunar breccias. Lithification is attributed to the passage of shock waves through porous aggregates, causing deformation whose intensity varied spatially on a small scale, the most intense deformation and heating effects being concentrated at the edges of large grains and in the matrix between them. It is inferred that relatively mild shocks have produced amorphous cement between matrix grains in the achondrite Khor Temiki and the chondrite Weston. Relatively intense shock is inferred for specimens of the chondrites St. Mesmin and Pantar. These have non-porous, completely crystalline matrices, and fine-grained black veins which fill cracks in relatively large deformed grains. Recrystallization of some deformed material is attributed to shock-heating, which was not sustained long enough to erase the irradiation record from all the relatively large grains. Matrix recrystallization without extensive melting constitutes a metamorphic event, and the observations indicate that shock was responsible for the metamorphism experienced by these chondrites at relatively late stages of the evolution of their parent bodies.