Stress induced transformation of pigeonites from achondritic meteorites

A transmission electron microscopic (TEM) study was conducted to investigate the stress-induced transformation mechanisms of pigeonites from two achondrites. In pigeonites from the Allan Hills 77257 ureilite, abundant lamellae of orthopyroxene-pigeonite intergrowth accompanied by minor amounts of blebby augite precipitates were observed. In pigeonites from the Juvinas eucrite, some stacking faults running through the (001) augite lamellae were observed although most of the stacking faults terminated at the host-lamella interface. High resolution TEM observation shows the fringe offset produced by the stacking fault in the Juvinas pigeonites. The magnitude of the mismatch parallel to [001] is approximately c/4, which is related to the formation of the partial edge dislocation near the host-lamella interface. The partial dislocation is imaged as an edge dislocation with an (002) extra-plane. Three partial dislocation mechanisms with distinct displacement vectors are proposed in order to explain the stress-induced transformation textures observed in the achondritic pyroxenes. Further study will be required to determine unequivocally the mechanism of atomic displacements during stress-induced transformation. However, regardless of the actual mechanism of transformation, it is not difficult to convert orthopyroxene to clinopyroxene or vice versa by this transformation from the structural point of view. Low-Ca pyroxenes are deformed without a stress-induced transformation by slip at high temperature and geologically reasonable strain rates. However, meteoritic pyroxenes can be deformed by stress-induced transformation even at high temperature because preterrestrial impact processes will produce a deformation condition with high strain rates. Deformation at high strain rates and high temperature is very important when we interpret the microtexture of meteoritic pyroxenes.