Libyan Desert Glass: New evidence for an extremely high-pressure-temperature impact event from nanostructural study

Abstract

The origin of Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) found in the western parts of Egypt close to the Libyan border is debatable in planetary science. Two major theories of its formation are currently competing: (i) melting by airburst and (ii) formation by impact-related melting.While mineralogical and textural evidence for a high-temperature event responsible for the LDG formation is abundant and convincing, minerals and textures indicating high shock pressure have been scarce. This paper provides a nanostructural study of the LDG, showing This is the peer-reviewed, final accepted version for American Mineralogist, published by the Mineralogical Society of America.The published version is subject to change. Cite as Authors (Year) Title. American Mineralogist, in press.

Provenance constraints on the Late Triassic ejecta layer from Churchwood Quarry, SW England: An impactite suite from Manicouagan

“…However, the presence of thermally dissociated zircon (Figure 6b) and recrystallized apatite (Figure 7a,b) documented within spherule interiors provides strong support for these components forming in flight. This is further supported by the similarity of these dissociation textures with vermicular ZrO 2 rims surrounding zircons from various impactites (e.g., Mistastin impact structure; Timms et al., 2017) and within Libyan desert glass (Cavosie & Koeberl, 2019; Kovaleva et al., 2023).…”