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Browsing by Author "Shaw, Cliff S. J."

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    Thermal modeling of shock melts in four Martian meteorites; implications for preservation of Martian atmosphere and crystallization of high-pressure minerals from shock melts
    (2013) Shaw, Cliff S. J.; Walton, Erin L.
    The distribution of shock melts in four shergottites, having both vein and pocket geometry, has been defined and the conductive cooling time over the range 2500 degrees C to 900 degrees C calculated. Isolated 1 mm (super 2) pockets cool in 1.17 s and cooling times increase with pocket area. An isolated vein 1X7 mm in Northwest Africa (NWA) 4797 cools to 900 degrees C in 4.5 s. Interference between thermal haloes of closely spaced shock melts decreases the thermal gradient, extending cooling times by a factor of 1.4 to 100. This is long enough to allow differential diffusion of Ar and Xe from the melt. Small pockets (1 mm (super 2) ) lose 2.2% Ar and 5.2% Xe during cooling, resulting in a small change in the Ar/Xe ratio of the dissolved gas over that originally trapped. With longer cooling times there is significant fractionation of Xe from Ar and the Ar/Xe ratio increases rapidly. The largest pockets show less variation of Ar/Xe and likely preserve the original trapped gas composition. Considering all of the model calculations, even the smallest isolated pockets have cooling times greater than the duration of the pressure pulse, i.e., >0.01 s. The crystallization products of these shock melts will be unrelated to the peak shock pressure experienced by the meteorite.
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    Understanding the textures and origin of shock melt pockets in Martian meteorites from petrographic studies, comparisons with terrestrial mantle xenoliths, and experimental studies
    (2009) Walton, Erin L.; Shaw, Cliff S. J.
    We present a textural comparison of localized shock melt pockets in Martian meteorites and glass pockets in terrestrial, mantle-derived peridotites. Specific textures such as the development of sieve texture on spinel and pyroxene, and melt migration and reaction with the host rock are identical between these two apparently disparate sample sets. Based on petrographic and compositional observations it is concluded that void collapse/variable shock impedance is able to account for the occurrence of pre-terrestrial sulfate-bearing secondary minerals in the melts, high gas emplacement efficiencies, and S, Al, Ca, and Na enrichments and Fe and Mg depletion of shock melt compositions compared to the host rock; previously used as arguments against such a formation mechanism. Recent experimental studies of xenoliths are also reviewed to show how these data further our understanding of texture development and can be used to shed light on the petrogenesis of shock melts in Martian meteorites.