Rock transformations in spherically converging shock waves: Newly obtained experimental results

Abstract

The paper presents a concise review of results obtained by studying shock metamorphism of polymineralic rocks with the application of spherical hermetically sealed recovery devices. Such experiments are proved to be able to reproduce principally important features of transformations detected in rocks from natural meteoritic craters (astroblemes). The experimental samples show subspherical concentric zones with different rock transformations, which are generally analogous to zones in natural astroblemes (listed in order from the centers of the spherical samples to their margins): fracturing, diaplectic transformations, selective and then complete melting, and finally, evaporation. However, the laboratory scale of the experiments and the absence of younger overprinted processes, which can obliterate impact transformations of rocks in nature, enable the researcher to reveal distinctive compositional, textural, and phase features of transformations induced in the rocks at increasing isentropic shock wave-induced loading. Data on the mobility of major elements in the course of impact metamorphism show that the type and certain features of the crystal structures of minerals are of paramount importance for the amorphization of the minerals or their shock wave-induced thermal decomposition. The crystal chemical control of mineral transformations was proved to be exerted at a number of levels. High-pressure phases identified in experiments with shock wave loading were determined to crystallize from melt or via a phase transition associated with the migration of elements.