EXPERIMENTAL SIMULATION OF SHOCK INDUCED

Meteorite impacts and their attendant shock waves create conditions of extremely high strain-rates, temperatures, and pressures. As the role of fluids in our Solar System becomes increasingly recognized and studied, it is important to understand the effects of shock on fluid-bearing materials. In this study, the effects of 5–30 GPa experimental shock waves on aqueous fluid inclusions in single-crystal quartz were observed and quantified. The homogenization temperatures of fluid inclusions within the samples and other physical features were documented before and after the experimental shock events. The properties of fluid inclusions show a systematic and gradual evolution with increasing shock pressure. Some fluid inclusions survive shock pressures of 6 GPa, yet they exhibit an increase in homogenization temperature relative to pre-impact measurements, suggesting that re-equilibration occurred because of internal overpressures. Decrepitated fluid inclusions were observed in the 6 and 7.6 GPa samples, whereas textures indicative of the collapse of fluid inclusions due to internal underpressure were observed in samples shocked at 7.6–12 GPa. No features that could be directly related to fluid inclusions were observed in samples shocked at pressures greater than 12 GPa. Results of these experiments suggest that fluid inclusions initially undergo a decrease in volume during shock compression.