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Eucrite Impact Melt NWA 5218 - Evidence for a Large Crater on Vesta

Abstract

Northwest Africa (NWA) 5218 is a 76 g achondrite that is classified as a eucrite [1]. However, an initial classification [2] describes it as a "eucrite shock-melt breccia...(in which) large, partially melted cumulate basalt clasts are set in a shock melt flow...". We explore the petrology of this clast-bearing impact melt rock (Fig. 1), which could be a characteristic lithology at large impact craters on asteroid Vesta [3]. Methods: Optical microscopy, scanning electronmicroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were used on a thin section (Fig. 1) for petrographic characterization. The impact melt composition was determined by 20 m diameter defocused-beam analyses with a Cameca SX-100 electron microprobe. The data from 97 spots were corrected for mineral density effects [4]. Constituent mineral phases were analyzed with a focusedbeam. Bidirectonal visible and near-infrared (VNIR) and biconical FT-IR reflectance spectra were measured on the surface of a sample slab on its central melt area and on an eucrite clast, and from 125-500 m and 100 m are coarse-grained with equigranular ~1 mm size plagioclase, quartz, and clinopyroxene (Fig. 1). Single crystals of chromite, ilmenite, zircon, Ca-Mg phosphate, Fe-metal, and troilite are embedded in the melt. Polymineralic clasts are mostly compositionally similar to the above mentioned larger clasts but scarce granulitic fragments are observed as well

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