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Libyan Desert Glass: New evidence for an extremely high-pressure-temperature impact event from nanostructural study

  • Elizaveta Kovaleva ORCID logo , Hassan Helmy , Said Belkacim , Anja Schreiber , Franziska D.H. Wilke and Richard Wirth
Published/Copyright: October 4, 2023
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 108 Issue 10

Abstract

The origin of Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) found in the western parts of Egypt close to the Libyan border is debated in planetary science. Two major theories of its formation are currently competing: (1) melting by airburst and (2) formation by impact-related melting. While mineralogical and textural evidence for a high-temperature event responsible for the LDG formation is abundant and convincing, minerals and textures indicating high shock pressure have been scarce. This paper provides a nanostructural study of the LDG, showing new evidence of its high-pressure and high-temperature origin. We mainly focused on the investigation of Zr-bearing and phosphate aggregates enclosed within LDG. Micro- and nanostructural evidence obtained with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are spherical inclusions of cubic, tetragonal, and orthorhombic (Pnma or OII) zirconia after zircon, which indicate high-pressure, high-temperature decomposition of zircon and possibly, melting of ZrO2. Inclusions of amorphous silica and amorphous Al-phosphate with berlinite composition (AlPO4) within mosaic whitlockite and monazite aggregates point at decomposition and melting of phosphates, which formed an emulsion with SiO2 melt. The estimated temperature of the LDG melts was above 2750 °C, approaching the point of SiO2 boiling. The variety of textures with different degrees of quenching immediately next to each other suggests an extreme thermal gradient that existed in LDG through radiation cooling. Additionally, the presence of quenched orthorhombic OII ZrO2 provides direct evidence of high-pressure (>13.5 GPa) conditions, confirming theory 2, the hypervelocity impact origin of the LDG.

Keywords: Granular textures; transmission electron microscopy; zircon; phosphates; zirconium oxide; orthorhombic zirconia OII; cubic zirconia; immiscibility

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Received: 2022-08-13
Accepted: 2022-11-16
Published Online: 2023-10-04
Published in Print: 2023-10-26

© 2023 by Mineralogical Society of America

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Heavy halogen compositions of lamprophyres derived from metasomatized lithospheric mantle beneath eastern North China Craton
  2. Compositional trends in Ba-, Ti-, and Cl-rich micas from metasomatized mantle rocks of the Gföhl Unit, Bohemian Massif, Austria
  3. Experimental determination of quartz solubility in H2O-CaCl2 solutions at 600–900 °C and 0.6–1.4 GPa
  4. The use of boron nitride to impose reduced redox conditions in experimental petrology
  5. Structures and transport properties of supercritical SiO2-H2O and NaAlSi3O8-H2O fluids
  6. Hydrologic regulation of clay-mineral transformations in a redoximorphic soil of subtropical monsoonal China
  7. Witness to strain: Subdomain boundary length and the apparent subdomain boundary density in large strained olivine grains
  8. Libyan Desert Glass: New evidence for an extremely high-pressure-temperature impact event from nanostructural study
  9. Crystal vs. melt compositional effects on the partitioning of the first-row transition and high field strength elements between clinopyroxene and silicic, alkaline, aluminous melts
  10. Microbially induced clay weathering: Smectite-to-kaolinite transformation
  11. Hydrous wadsleyite crystal structure up to 32 GPa
  12. Multiple fluid sources in skarn systems: Oxygen isotopic evidence from the Haobugao Zn-Fe-Sn deposit in the southern Great Xing’an Range, NE China
  13. Crocobelonite, CaFe23+(PO4)2O, a new oxyphosphate mineral, the product of pyrolytic oxidation of natural phosphides
  14. Tetrahedrite-(Ni), Cu6(Cu4Ni2)Sb4S13, the first nickel member of tetrahedrite group mineral from Luobusa chromite deposits, Tibet, China
  15. New Mineral Names: Heavy metal and minerals from China
  16. Book Review
https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2022-8759
Keywords for this article
Granular textures; transmission electron microscopy; zircon; phosphates; zirconium oxide; orthorhombic zirconia OII; cubic zirconia; immiscibility

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Heavy halogen compositions of lamprophyres derived from metasomatized lithospheric mantle beneath eastern North China Craton
  2. Compositional trends in Ba-, Ti-, and Cl-rich micas from metasomatized mantle rocks of the Gföhl Unit, Bohemian Massif, Austria
  3. Experimental determination of quartz solubility in H2O-CaCl2 solutions at 600–900 °C and 0.6–1.4 GPa
  4. The use of boron nitride to impose reduced redox conditions in experimental petrology
  5. Structures and transport properties of supercritical SiO2-H2O and NaAlSi3O8-H2O fluids
  6. Hydrologic regulation of clay-mineral transformations in a redoximorphic soil of subtropical monsoonal China
  7. Witness to strain: Subdomain boundary length and the apparent subdomain boundary density in large strained olivine grains
  8. Libyan Desert Glass: New evidence for an extremely high-pressure-temperature impact event from nanostructural study
  9. Crystal vs. melt compositional effects on the partitioning of the first-row transition and high field strength elements between clinopyroxene and silicic, alkaline, aluminous melts
  10. Microbially induced clay weathering: Smectite-to-kaolinite transformation
  11. Hydrous wadsleyite crystal structure up to 32 GPa
  12. Multiple fluid sources in skarn systems: Oxygen isotopic evidence from the Haobugao Zn-Fe-Sn deposit in the southern Great Xing’an Range, NE China
  13. Crocobelonite, CaFe23+(PO4)2O, a new oxyphosphate mineral, the product of pyrolytic oxidation of natural phosphides
  14. Tetrahedrite-(Ni), Cu6(Cu4Ni2)Sb4S13, the first nickel member of tetrahedrite group mineral from Luobusa chromite deposits, Tibet, China
  15. New Mineral Names: Heavy metal and minerals from China
  16. Book Review
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