Abstract
Meteorites represent the only samples available for study on Earth of a number of planetary bodies. The minerals within meteorites therefore hold the key to addressing numerous questions about our solar system. Of particular interest is the Ca-phosphate mineral merrillite, the anhydrous end-member of the merrillite–whitlockite solid solution series. For example, the anhydrous nature of merrillite in Martian meteorites has been interpreted as evidence of water-limited late-stage Martian melts. However, recent research on apatite in the same meteorites suggests higher water content in melts. One complication of using meteorites rather than direct samples is the shock compression all meteorites have experienced, which can alter meteorite mineralogy. Here we show whitlockite transformation into merrillite by shock-compression levels relevant to meteorites, including Martian meteorites. The results open the possibility that at least part of meteoritic merrillite may have originally been H+-bearing whitlockite with implications for interpreting meteorites and the need for future sample return.
Highlights
Meteorites represent the only samples available for study on Earth of a number of planetary bodies
As no single laboratory experiment can encompass the full complexity of a natural impact event, we performed a set of four shock experiments (GG092 through GG095) focused on three specific shock-induced processes, which could potentially transform whitlockite to merrillite
These processes were heating through void collapse[47], frictional heating due to mineral impedance contrasts and shock compression effects[48]
Summary
Meteorites represent the only samples available for study on Earth of a number of planetary bodies. For numerous solar system bodies, meteorites represent the only physical samples available for study on Earth This includes Mars, where paragenetic (petrographic) relationships of minerals, total water or volatile content, and rare Earth elements (REEs) distribution in minerals of Martian meteorites have all shed light on Martian planetary processes such as mantle and crustal evolution, planetary volatile contents and even the potential for past Martian life[1,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. The hypothesis that we are testing in this work, is that shock has devolatilized what was, in part or whole, whitlockite into merrillite
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