Heating effects of the matrix of experimentally shocked Murchison CM chondrite: Comparison with micrometeorites

Abstract

Micrometeorites have been significantly altered or melted by heating, which has been mainly ascribed to aerodynamic drag during atmospheric entry. However, if a major fraction of micrometeorites are produced by impacts on porous asteroids, they may have experienced shock heating before contact with the Earth's atmosphere (Tomeoka et al. 2003). A transmission electron microscope (TEM) study of the matrix of Murchison CM chondrite experimentally shocked at pressures of 10-49 GPa shows that its mineralogy and texture change dramatically, mainly due to shock heating, with the progressive shock pressures. Tochilinite is completely decomposed to an amorphous material at 10 GPa. Fe-Mg serpentine is partially decomposed and decreases in amount with increasing pressure from 10 to 30 GPa and is completely decomposed at 36 GPa. At 49 GPa, the matrix is extensively melted and consists mostly of aggregates of equigranular grains of Fe-rich olivine and less abundant low-Ca pyroxene embedded in Si-rich glass. The mineralogy and texture of the shocked samples are similar to those of some types of micrometeorites. In particular, the samples shocked at 10 and 21 GPa are similar to the phyllosilicate (serpentine)-rich micrometeorites, and the sample shocked at 49 GPa is similar to the olivine-rich micrometeorites. The shock heating effects also resemble the effects of pulse-heating experiments on the CI and CM chondrite matrices that were conducted to simulate atmospheric entry heating. We suggest that micrometeorites derived from porous asteroids are likely to go through both shock and atmospheric-entry heating processes.