Petrology and oxygen isotopic compositions of clasts in HED polymict breccia NWA 5232

Abstract

Northwest Africa (NWA) 5232, an 18.5 kg polymict eucrite, comprises eucritic and exogenic CM carbonaceous chondrite clasts within a clastic matrix. Basaltic clasts are the most abundant eucritic clast type and show a range of textures and grain size, from subophitic to granoblastic. Other eucritic clast types present include cumulate (high-En pyroxene), pyroxene-lath, olivine rich with symplectite intergrowths as a break-down product of a quickly cooled Fe-rich metastable pyroxferroite, and breccia (fragments of a previously consolidated breccia) clasts. A variable cooling rate and degree of thermal metamorphism, followed by a complex brecciation history, can be inferred for the clasts based on clast rounding, crystallization (and recrystallization) textures, pyroxene major and minor element compositions, and pyroxene exsolution. The range in δ18O of clasts and matrix of NWA 5232 reflects its origin as a breccia of mixed clasts dominated by eucritic lithologies. The oxygen isotopic compositions of the carbonaceous chondrite clasts identify them as belonging to CM group and indicate that these clasts experienced a low degree of aqueous alteration while part of their parent body. The complex evolutionary history of NWA 5232 implies that large-scale impact excavation and mixing was an active process on the surface of the HED parent body, likely 4 Vesta.