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Shock-induced growth and metastability of stishovite and coesite in lithic clasts from suevite of the Ries impact crater (Germany)

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Abstract

The microtextures of stishovite and coesite in shocked non-porous lithic clasts from suevite of the Ries impact structure were studied in transmitted light and under the scanning electron microscope. Both high-pressure silica phases were identified in situ by laser-Raman spectroscopy. They formed from silica melt as well as by solid-state transformation. In weakly shocked rocks (stage I), fine-grained stishovite (≤1.8 μm) occurs in thin pseudotachylite veins of quartz-rich rocks, where it obviously nucleated from high-pressure frictional melts. Generally no stishovite was found in planar deformation features (PDFs) within grains of rock-forming quartz. The single exception is a highly shocked quartz grain, trapped between a pseudotachylite vein and a large ilmenite grain, in which stishovite occurs within two sets of lamellae. It is assumed that in this case the small stishovite grains formed by the interplay of conductive heating and shock reverberation. In strongly shocked rocks (stages Ib–III, above ∼30 GPa), grains of former quartz typically contain abundant and variably sized stishovite (<6 μm) embedded within a dense amorphous silica phase in the interstices between PDFs. The formation of transparent diaplectic glass in adjacent domains results from the breakdown of stishovite and the transformation of the dense amorphous phase and PDFs to diaplectic glass in the solid state. Coesite formed during unloading occurs in two textural varieties. Granular micrometre-sized coesite occurs embedded in silica melt glass along former fractures and grain boundaries. These former high-pressure melt pockets are surrounded by diaplectic glass or by domains consisting of microcrystalline coesite and earlier formed stishovite. The latter is mostly replaced by amorphous silica.

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Acknowledgments

Ronald Miletich is thanked for fruitful discussions on structural aspects of silica polymorphs and kinetic aspects of silica phase transitions. We are grateful to Melanie Kaliwoda for her assistance during electron microprobe analyses and to Emily W. Zack for her improvement of the English style. Ilse Glass and Oleksandr Varychev are thanked for their assistance during extensive SEM work. Our thanks are also due to Ilona Fin and Oliver Wienand for preparing excellent polished thin sections. Careful reviews by John Spray, Dieter Stöffler and an anonymous colleague helped to substantially improve the paper.

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  1. Lutz Nasdala

    Present address: Institute of Mineralogy and Crystallography, University of Vienna, Althanstr. 14, 1090, Wien, Austria

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  1. Institute of Mineralogy, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 236, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Volker Stähle, Rainer Altherr & Mario Koch

  2. Institute of Geosciences, University of Mainz, Becherweg 21, 55099, Mainz, Germany

    Lutz Nasdala

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Stähle, V., Altherr, R., Koch, M. et al. Shock-induced growth and metastability of stishovite and coesite in lithic clasts from suevite of the Ries impact crater (Germany). Contrib Mineral Petrol 155, 457–472 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-007-0252-2

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