** Progress in Earth and Planetary Science is the official journal of the Japan Geoscience Union, published in collaboration with its society members.
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Research
Solid earth sciences
202307202307
Effect of grain size on amorphization mechanism and kinetics of bridgmanite in shocked meteorites
Masayuki Nishi, Si Jin, Katsutoshi Kawano, Hideharu Kuwahara, Akihiro Yamada, Shogo Kawaguchi, Yuki Mori, Tatsuhiro Sakaiya, Tadashi Kondo
Bridgmanite, High pressure, Shocked meteorite, Amorphization kinetics
Survived bridgmanite fraction (X-ray peak intensities) and variation of relative volume (V/V0) as a function of temperature. Significant volume expansion due to temperature-induced amorphization caused static stress.
Bridgmanite formation and amorphization in shocked meteorites constrain the pressure and temperature conditions during planetary impact. However, the effect of the bridgmanite grain size on its amorphization kinetics is still unclear. Here, the amorphization mechanism and kinetics of fine-grained polycrystalline bridgmanite were studied at high temperatures up to 1080 K. High-temperature time-resolved synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements showed that significant volume expansion due to temperature-induced amorphization caused static stress, which then hindered amorphization progress. Further, the temperature required for the amorphization of fine-grained bridgmanite (~ 1 μm) was found to be approximately 100 K higher than that required for the amorphization of coarse-grained samples (> 10 μm). We also noted that amorphization preferentially commenced at the twin planes and subgrain boundaries of bridgmanite grains, resulting in lower amorphization temperatures for the coarse-grained samples. The limited number of such specific locations in fine-grained natural bridgmanite suggested that grain boundary amorphization may be the dominant mechanism for bridgmanite amorphization in shocked meteorites. This unique amorphization kinetics would support the preservation of bridgmanite during the post-shock annealing in the shocked meteorite. Although bridgmanite amorphization starts easily at temperatures above ~ 420 K, a small amount of bridgmanite grains can survive at temperatures above 800 K by the effect of amorphization-induced stress.
