Northwest Africa 2526: A partial melt residue of enstatite chondrite parentage

Abstract

Abstract— NWA 2526 is a coarse‐grained, achondritic rock dominated by equigranular grains of polysynthetically twinned enstatite (˜85 vol%) with frequent 120° triple junctions and ˜10–15 vol% of kamacite + terrestrial weathering products. All other phases including troilite, daubreelite, schreibersite, and silica‐normative melt areas make up <˜1 vol% of the rock Oxygen isotopic analyses are well within the range of those for enstatite chondrites and aubrites. We show that the “enstatite achondrite” (Russell et al. 2005) Northwest Africa (NWA) 2526 is actually a partial melt residue of an enstatite chondrite‐like lithology that experienced ˜20 vol% partial melting. We suggest that the heat source was internal to the parent body. The FeS‐Fe,Ni and plagioclase‐enstatite partial melts were removed from the parent lithology, leaving NWA 2526 as a residue highly depleted in troilite and lacking plagioclase. Sub‐solidus slow cooling and annealing is responsible for the coarsegrained, recrystallized texture of the rock. We also suggest that the parent lithology of NWA 2526, prior to partial melting, experienced a shock event which formed the curvilinear trails of blebs of minor troilite and rare metal that are enclosed in enstatite crystals; thus, these represent relicts. After partial melting and annealing, NWA 2526 experienced a second, relatively mild impact event (<˜20 GPa) that caused formation of the polysynthetic twinning in the enstatite.We suggest that the meteorite Zaklodzie, which has been referred to as a “primitive enstatite achondrite” (Przylibski et al. 2005), did not form from a magma of internal origin, but that it is an impact‐melt breccia of enstatite chondrite‐like parentage, as previously discussed by Burbine et al. (2000) and Keil (2007).Finally, the “metal‐rich enstatite meteorite with achondritic texture” Itqiy (Patzer et al. 2001) formed by processes very similar to those responsible for formation of NWA 2526 and is also the residue of ˜20 vol% partial melting of an enstatite chondrite‐like parent lithology, with the FeS‐Fe,Ni and plagioclase‐enstatite partial melts having been removed from the residue. It also experienced an impact event after partial melting that was responsible for the formation of the mixed Mg‐Mn‐Fe‐sulfides and the shock stage S3 features of the enstatite. These similarities indicate that NWA 2526 and Itqiy may have formed on the same parent body. This body was different from the EH, EL, Shallowater and aubrite parent bodies, and NWA 2526 and Itqiy may represent samples from yet another, fifth enstatite meteorite parent body.