Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-wxhwt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T04:25:46.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A metallographic study of the disruption of the Cañon Diablo projectile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

H. J. Axon  and
W. R. D. Couper
H. J. Axon
Affiliation:
Metallurgy Department, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL
W. R. D. Couper
Affiliation:
Metallurgy Department, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

A metallographic investigation of macro- and micro-structures, supported by microprobe examination, has been made on similarly sized (< ca. 200 g) individual Cañon Diablo meteorites of rim or plains type. Plains type specimens show heat alteration zones of the ablation type. They are extensively cracked in a brittle manner and in some instances the cracks are penetrated by ablation melt product. In all cases the cracks are now penetrated by terrestrial corrosion. Cohenite and schreibersite are cracked in a brittle manner. By contrast the rim type specimens are remarkably free of internal cracking or corrosion penetration. Instead the cohenite, schreibersite, taenite, and kamacite are transected by slip faults or shear displacements along the line of which all phases appear to have slipped in a non-brittle manner. These specimens have all been subject to shock loading and particular attention is paid to the effects of shock on sphalerite, on cloudy taenite, and on martensitic plessite.

Plains specimens have broken from the original projectile in a brittle manner well above the earth's surface. Rim specimens have been scabbed from the rear of the projectile as it penetrated the earth's surface. Some of the rim specimens show signs of being heated by the blast of the crater-forming explosion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 40 , Issue 316 , December 1976 , pp. 827 - 841
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Axon, (H. J.), 1969. In Meteorite Research, ed. Millman (P. M.), pp. 796-805. Dordrecht (D. Reidel).Google Scholar
Axon, (H. J.), and Waine, (C. V.), 1972. Min. Mag. 38, 725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brentnall, (W. D.) and Axon, (H. J.), 1962. Journ. Iron Steel Inst. 200, 947.Google Scholar
Heymann, (D.), Lipschutz, (M. E.), Nielson, (B.), and Anders, (E.), 1966. Journ. Geophys. Res. 71, 619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimball, (M. R.), 1973. Meteoritics, 8, 397.Google Scholar
Krinov, (E. L.) [], 1966. Giant Meteorites (Pergamon).Google Scholar
Krinov, (E. L.) 1974. Meteoritics, 9, 255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipschutz, (M. E.), 1967. Geochimica Acta, 31, 621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, (C. B.), Birrell, (P. J.), and Lewis, (C. F.), 1967. Ibid. 31, 1885.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nininger, (H. H.), 1956. Arizona's Meteorite Crater. Amer. Meteorite Mus., Sedona, Arizona.Google Scholar
Perry, (S. H.), 1944. The Metallography of Meteoric Iron. U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 184, Plate 75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhode, (R. W.), 1970. Acta Met. 18, 903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, (E. R. D.), 1973. Geochimica Acta, 37, 2283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoemaker, (E. M.) 1963. In The Moon, Meteorites and Comets ed. Middlehurst (B. M.) and Kuiper (G. P.) (Vol. IV of the Solar System), 301-36. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar