Investigation of the strongly shocked Viñales ordinary chondrite meteorite (L6) fall – Implications for fragmentation and collision dynamics

Baziotis, I.P; Xydous, S; Papoutsa, A; Hu, J; Ma, C; Ferrière, L; Klemme, S; Berndt, J; Asimow, PD

Abstract

The effects of collisions on the evolution of asteroids, ranging from local fracturing to brecciation or even to catastrophic disruption, depend primarily on the encounter velocities. Here we show for the first time that the Viñales (L6) ordinary chondrite meteorite preserves mineralogy and texture that require at least one highly energetic impact. The high-velocity impact generated numerous shock-related melt veins of variable thickness. We report the discovery of two high-pressure phases, majorite and albitic jadeite, limited to just one of these shock-related melt veins. This result confirms that Viñales is a strongly shocked sample and that it experienced a complex and spatially variable pressure-temperature-time history with a low (but non-zero) probability of preservation of high-pressure phases.

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