The Bencubbin stony-iron meteorite breccia: Electron petrography,shock-history and affinities of a “carbonaceous chondrite” clast

Abstract— A “carbonaceous chondrite” clast from Bencubbin was studied by analytical transmission electron microscopy and other electron beam techniques. In section, the clast consists of oval augen, with a preferred orientation, set in fine-grained matrix. The augen comprise olivine microphenocrysts in fine-grained to glassy mesostases. The olivines are heavily deformed, giving rise to mosaicism. Many sub-grains have high densities of dislocations with 001] Burgers vectors. In some regions the dislocation configurations are recovered, causing a reduced dislocation density; recrystallization is rarer. Severe cataclasis is absent; there are few open fractures and little intergranular porosity except where a second phase occurs. Such porosity in olivine mainly occurs as finescale negative crystals, which appear to be healed cracks. Some mesostases consist of small amounts of microporous oxides and feldspathic glass but glassy veins are absent. Pyrhottite and Fe/Ni sulfides are major mesostasis constituents that rarely form tongues between the olivines, which commonly include smaller sulfide blebs. The matrix of the clast has abundant sulfides and fine-grained, poorly crystalline Fe- and Fe/Ni-oxides, with more sparse ferrihydrite. The oxides mostly occur in contact with, or within, aluminous and siliceous glassy material in which crystals of melilite, spinel, Ca-pyroxene, feldspar, and other minor silicate phases have grown. Small patches of fibrous and/or sheet-like Mg/Fe silicates with layer morphologies also occur. They are microporous, poorly crystalline and lack the layer spacings of phyllosilicates, of which they may be relics. Grains of anhydrite and calcite are interlaced with fibrous silicates. There is evidence that one, or more, intense shock-heating event(s) produced local melting. A later shock event(s) involved less severe shock-heating, to about 900 °C. The mineralogy indicates that the clast may have originated from a CM2 precursor or from material like Allan Hills 85085, although it is just possible that terrestrial weathering produced some of the diagnostic minerals.