Thomas M Davison

Pressure–temperature evolution of primordial solar system solids during impact-induced compaction

Prior to becoming chondritic meteorites, primordial solids were a poorly consolidated mix of mm-scale igneous inclusions (chondrules) and high-porosity sub-μm dust (matrix). We used high-resolution numerical simulations to track the effect of impact-induced compaction on these materials. Here we show that impact velocities as low as 1.5 km s−1 were capable of heating the matrix to >1,000 K, with pressure–temperature varying by >10 GPa and >1,000 K over ~100 μm. Chondrules were unaffected, acting as heat-sinks: matrix temperature excursions were brief. As impact-induced compaction was a primary and ubiquitous process, our new understanding of its effects requires that key aspects of the chondrite record be re-evaluated: palaeomagnetism, petrography and variability in shock level across meteorite groups. Our data suggest a lithification mechanism for meteorites, and provide a ‘speed limit’ constraint on major compressive impacts that is inconsistent with recent models of solar system orbital architecture that require an early, rapid phase of main-belt collisional evolution.

The early impact histories of meteorite parent bodies

We have developed a statistical framework that uses collisional evolution models, shock physics modeling, and scaling laws to determine the range of plausible collisional histories for individual meteorite parent bodies. It is likely that those parent bodies that were not catastrophically disrupted sustained hundreds of impacts on their surfaces— compacting, heating, and mixing the outer layers; it is highly unlikely that many parent bodies escaped without any impacts processing the outer few kilometers. The first 10-20 Myr were the most important time for impacts, both in terms of the number of impacts and the increase of specific internal energy due to impacts. The model has been applied to evaluate the proposed impact histories of several meteorite parent bodies: up to 10 parent bodies that were not disrupted in the first 100 Myr experienced a vaporizing collision of the type necessary to produce the metal inclusions and chondrules on the CB chondrite parent; around 1-5% of bodies that were catastrophically disrupted after 12 Myr sustained impacts at times that match the heating events recorded on the IAB/winonaite parent body; more than 75% of 100 km radius parent bodies, which survived past 100 Myr without being disrupted, sustained an impact that excavates to the depth required for mixing in the outer layers of the H-chondrite parent body; and to protect the magnetic field on the CV chondrite parent body, the crust would have had to have been thick (approximately 20 km) to prevent it being punctured by impacts.

Mesoscale Modeling Of Impact Compaction Of Primitive Solar System Solids

We have developed a method for simulating the mesoscale compaction of early solar system solids in low velocity impact events, using the iSALE shock physics code. Chondrules are represented by nonporous disks, placed within a porous matrix. By simulating impacts into bimodal mixtures over a wide range of parameter space (including the chondrule-to-matrix ratio, the matrix porosity and composition and the impact velocity), we have shown how each of these parameters influences the shock processing of heterogeneous materials. The temperature after shock processing shows a strong dichotomy: matrix temperatures are elevated much higher than the chondrules, which remain largely cold. Chondrules can protect some matrix from shock compaction, with shadow regions in the lee side of chondrules exhibiting higher porosity that elsewhere in the matrix. Using the results from this mesoscale modelling, we show how the

Defining the mechanism for compaction of the CV chondrite parent body

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Interrogating heterogeneous compaction of analogue materials at the mesoscale through numerical modeling and experiments

porous compaction model parameters depend on initial bulk porosity. We also show that the timescale for the temperature dichotomy to equilibrate is highly dependent on the porosity of the matrix after the shock, and will be on the order of seconds for matrix porosities of less than 0.1, and on the order of 10s to 100s seconds for matrix porosities of

Validation of numerical codes for impact and explosion cratering: Impacts on strengthless and metal targets

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Numerical modelling of heating in porous planetesimal collisions

0.3--0.5. Finally, we have shown that the composition of the post-shock material is able to match the bulk porosity and chondrule-to-matrix ratios of meteorite groups such as carbonaceous chondrites and unequilibrated ordinary chondrites.

Post-impact thermal evolution of porous planetesimals

The Allende meteorite, a relatively unaltered member of the CV carbonaceous chondrite group, contains primitive crystallographic textures that can inform our understanding of early Solar System planetary compaction. To test between models of porosity reduction on the CV parent body, complex microstructures within ~0.5-mm-diameter chondrules and ~10-μm-long matrix olivine grains were analyzed by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) techniques. The large area map presented is one of the most extensive EBSD maps to have been collected in application to extraterrestrial materials. Chondrule margins preferentially exhibit limited intragrain crystallographic misorientation due to localized crystal-plastic deformation. Crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs) preserved by matrix olivine grains are strongly coupled to grain shape, most pronounced in shortest dimension , yet are locally variable in orientation and strength. Lithostatic pressure within plausible chondritic model asteroids is not sufficient to drive compaction or create the observed microstructures if the aggregate was cold. Significant local variability in the orientation and intensity of compaction is also inconsistent with a global process. Detailed microstructures indicative of crystal-plastic deformation are consistent with brief heating events that were small in magnitude. When combined with a lack of sintered grains and the spatially heterogeneous CPO, ubiquitous hot isostatic pressing is unlikely to be responsible. Furthermore, Allende is the most metamorphosed CV chondrite, so if sintering occurred at all on the CV parent body it would be evident here. We conclude that the crystallographic textures observed reflect impact compaction and indicate shock-wave directionality. We therefore present some of the first significant evidence for shock compaction of the CV parent body.

Numerical modeling of oblique hypervelocity impacts on strong ductile targets

Meteorites are classified by their relative exposure to three processes: aqueous alteration; thermal metamorphism; and shock processes. They constitute the main evidence available for the conditions in the early solar system. The precursor material to meteorites was bimodal and consisted of large spherical melt droplets (chondrules) surrounded by an extremely fine porous dust (matrix) with a high bulk porosity (> 50%). We present experiments and simulations, developed in tandem, investigating the heterogeneous compaction of matter analogous to these precursor materials. Experiments were performed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) where radiographs of the shock compaction and wave propagation were taken in-situ and in real time. Mesoscale simulations were performed using a shock physics code to investigate the heterogeneous response of these mixtures to shock loading. Two simple scenarios were considered in which the compacted material was pure matrix or pure matrix with a single inclusion. Good agreement was found between experiment and model in terms of shock position and relative compaction in the matrix. In addition, spatial variation in post-shock compaction was observed around the single inclusion despite uniform pre-shock porosity in the matrix. This shock-induced anisotropy in compaction could provide a new way of decoding the magnitude and direction by which a meteorite was shocked in the past.