Impact deformation of Feldspar in Achondrite: NWA 2727, NWA 3117, NWA 856 Meteorite

We investigated shock history of three achondrite meteorites: NWA 3117, a howardite from asteroid Vesta, NWA 2727, a breccia from the Moon, and NWA 856, a shergottite from Mars. Shock histories were evaluated from deformation of plagioclase feldspars. Feldspar grains were classified based on observations in cross-polarized light as undulatory, mosaic, mosaic-recrystallized or maskelynite. This sequence represents increasing deformation of original feldspar crystals. Undulatory crystals have wavy extinction, mosaic crystals have patchy extinction, and mosaic-recrystallized grains appear as if they were originally coarse-grained and have recrystallized to mosaics of small equant crystals. Maskelynite grains are isotropic, indicating transformation to glass. Based on feldspar deformation, the degrees of impact processing are NWA 856 > NWA 3117 > NWA 2727. The high deformation of NWA 856 is expected because this sample is from Mars, which is a large parent body and requires a powerful impact to accelerate a rock to escape velocity. In contrast, the parent body of NWA 3117 (Vesta) is smaller than that of NWA 2727 (the Moon), yet NWA 3117 appears more highly deformed than NWA 2727. One possible explanation is that NWA 2727 is from a relatively young part of the Moon, which has not been exposed to impacts as long as the surface of Vesta.