We report on the petrography and mineralogy of three types of silicate veinlets in the brecciated eucrite Northwest Africa (NWA) 1109. These include Fe‐rich olivine, Mg‐rich olivine, and pyroxene veinlets. The Fe‐rich olivine veinlets mainly infill fractures in pyroxene and also occur along grain boundaries between pyroxene and plagioclase crystals, in both nonequilibrated and equilibrated lithic clasts. The host pyroxene of Fe‐rich olivine veinlets shows large chemical variations between and within grains. The Fe‐rich olivine veinlets also contain fine‐grained Fe3+‐bearing chromite, highly calcic plagioclase, merrillite, apatite, and troilite. Based on texture and mineral chemistry, we argue that the formation of Fe‐rich olivine was related to fluid deposition at relatively high temperatures. However, the source of Fe‐rich olivine in the veinlets remains unclear. Magnesium‐rich olivine veinlets were found in three diogenitic lithic clasts. In one of these, the Mg‐rich olivine veinlets only occur in one of the fine‐grained interstitial regions and extend into fractures within surrounding coarse‐grained orthopyroxene. Based on the texture of the interstitial materials, we suggest that the Mg‐rich olivine veinlets formed by shock‐induced localized melting and recrystallization. Pyroxene veinlets were only observed in one clast where they infill fractures within large plagioclase grains and are associated with fine‐grained pyroxene surrounding coarse‐grained pyroxene. The large chemical variations in pyroxene and the fracture‐filling texture indicate that the pyroxene veinlets might also have formed by shock‐induced localized melting and rapid crystallization. Our study demonstrates that silicate veinlets formed by a range of different surface processes on the surface of Vesta.

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High-pressure minerals in meteorites are important records of shock events that have affected the surfaces of planets and asteroids. A widespread distribution of impact craters has been observed on the Vestan surface. However, very few high-pressure minerals have been discovered in Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite (HED) meteorites. Here we present the first evidence of tissintite, vacancy-rich clinopyroxene, and super-silicic garnet in the eucrite Northwest Africa (NWA) 8003. Combined with coesite and stishovite, the presence of these high-pressure minerals and their chemical compositions reveal that solidification of melt veins in NWA 8003 began at a pressure of >~10 GPa and ceased when the pressure dropped to <~8.5 GPa. The shock temperature in the melt veins exceeded 1900 °C. Simulation results show that shock events that create impact craters of ~3 km in diameter (subject to a factor of 2 uncertainty) are associated with sufficiently high pressures to account for the occurrence of the high-pressure minerals observed in NWA 8003. This indicates that HED meteorites containing similar high-pressure minerals should be observed more frequently than previously thought.

Northwest Africa (NWA) 7755 is a newly found enriched lherzolitic shergottite. Here, we report its detailed petrography and mineralogy. NWA 7755 contains both poikilitic and non-poikilitic lithologies. Olivine has different compositional ranges in the poikilitic and non-poikilitic lithologies, Fa 30-39 and Fa 37-40 , respectively. Pyroxene in the non-poikilitic lithology is systematically Fe-richer than that in the poikilitic lithology. The chromite grains in non-poikilitic lithology are highly Ti-richer than those in the poikilitic lithology. The chemical variations of olivine, pyroxene, and chromite between the poikilitic and non-poikilitic lithologies support a two-stage formation model of lherzolitic shergottites. Besides planar fractures and strong mosaicism in olivine and pyroxene, shockinduced melt veins and pockets are observed in NWA 7755. Olivine grains within and adjacent to melt veins and/or pockets have either transformed to ringwoodite, amorphous phase, or dissociated to bridgmanite plus magnesiow€ ustite. Merrillite in melt veins has completely transformed to tuite; however, apatite only has partially transformed to tuite, indicating a relatively sluggish transformation rate. The partial transformation from apatite to tuite resulted in fractional devolatilization of Cl and F in apatite. The fine-grained mineral assemblage in melt veins consists mainly of bridgmanite, minor magnesiow€ ustite, Fe-sulfide, Fe-phosphide, and Ca-phosphate minerals. The coexistence of bridgmanite and magnesiow€ ustite in these veins indicates a shock pressure of >~24 GPa and a temperature of 1800-2000°C. Coesite and seifertite are probably present in NWA 7755. The presence of these high-pressure minerals indicates that NWA 7755 has experienced a more intense shock metamorphism than other enriched lherzolitic shergottites.

Anorthite is an important constituent mineral in basaltic achondrites from small celestial bodies. Its high‐pressure phase transformation in shocked meteorites has not been systematically studied. In this study, we report the diverse phase transformation behaviors of anorthite in a shocked eucrite Northwest Africa (NWA) 2650, which also contains coesite, stishovite, vacancy‐rich clinopyroxene, super‐silicic garnet, and reidite. Anorthite in NWA 2650 has transformed into anorthite glass (anorthite glassy vein, maskelynite, and glass with a schlieren texture and vesicles), tissintite and dissociated into three‐phase assemblage grossular + kyanite + silica glass. Different occurrences of anorthite glass might have formed via the mechanism involving shear melting, solid‐state transformation, and postshock thermally melting, respectively. Tissintite could have crystallized from a high‐pressure plagioclase melt. The nucleation of tissintite might be facilitated by relict pyroxene fragments and the early formed vacancy‐rich clinopyroxene. The three‐phase assemblage grossular, kyanite, and silica glass should have formed from anorthitic melt at high‐pressure and high‐temperature conditions. The presence of maskelynite and reidite probably suggests a minimum peak shock pressure up to 20 GPa, while the other high‐pressure phases indicate that the shock pressure during the crystallization of shock melt veins might vary from >8 GPa to >2 GPa with a heterogeneous temperature distribution.