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The response of zircon to the extreme pressures and temperatures of a lightning strike

Hypervelocity impacts can produce features in zircon that are not normally produced by endogenic processes. However, lightning can also induce extreme pressure–temperature excursions, and its effect on zircon has not been studied. With the aim to recognise features that form in response to extreme p...

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Autores principales: Kenny, Gavin G., Pasek, Matthew A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7810979/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33452373
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81043-8
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author Kenny, Gavin G.
Pasek, Matthew A.
author_facet Kenny, Gavin G.
Pasek, Matthew A.
author_sort Kenny, Gavin G.
collection PubMed
description Hypervelocity impacts can produce features in zircon that are not normally produced by endogenic processes. However, lightning can also induce extreme pressure–temperature excursions, and its effect on zircon has not been studied. With the aim to recognise features that form in response to extreme pressure–temperature excursions but are not unique to hypervelocity impacts, we imaged and undertook microstructural characterization of zircon in a fulgurite (a tubular body of glass and fused clasts that formed in response to a lightning strike). We document zircon with granular ZrO(2) and rims of vermicular ZrO(2), features which vary in abundance with increasing distance from the fulgurite’s central void. This indicates that these features formed in response to the lightning strike. Zircon dissociation to ZrO(2) and SiO(2) is a high-temperature, relatively low-pressure phenomenon, consistent with previous suggestions that lightning strikes involve extreme temperatures as well as pressures greater than those usually generated in Earth’s crust but rarely > 10 GPa. The rims of monoclinic ZrO(2) record crystallographic evidence for precursor cubic ZrO(2), demonstrating that cubic ZrO(2) is not unique to hypervelocity impacts. Given the likelihood that this fulgurite experienced pressures of, at most, a few GPa, evidence for cubic ZrO(2) indicates peak temperatures > 2000 °C.
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spelling pubmed-78109792021-01-21 The response of zircon to the extreme pressures and temperatures of a lightning strike Kenny, Gavin G. Pasek, Matthew A. Sci Rep Article Hypervelocity impacts can produce features in zircon that are not normally produced by endogenic processes. However, lightning can also induce extreme pressure–temperature excursions, and its effect on zircon has not been studied. With the aim to recognise features that form in response to extreme pressure–temperature excursions but are not unique to hypervelocity impacts, we imaged and undertook microstructural characterization of zircon in a fulgurite (a tubular body of glass and fused clasts that formed in response to a lightning strike). We document zircon with granular ZrO(2) and rims of vermicular ZrO(2), features which vary in abundance with increasing distance from the fulgurite’s central void. This indicates that these features formed in response to the lightning strike. Zircon dissociation to ZrO(2) and SiO(2) is a high-temperature, relatively low-pressure phenomenon, consistent with previous suggestions that lightning strikes involve extreme temperatures as well as pressures greater than those usually generated in Earth’s crust but rarely > 10 GPa. The rims of monoclinic ZrO(2) record crystallographic evidence for precursor cubic ZrO(2), demonstrating that cubic ZrO(2) is not unique to hypervelocity impacts. Given the likelihood that this fulgurite experienced pressures of, at most, a few GPa, evidence for cubic ZrO(2) indicates peak temperatures > 2000 °C. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7810979/ /pubmed/33452373 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81043-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Kenny, Gavin G.
Pasek, Matthew A.
The response of zircon to the extreme pressures and temperatures of a lightning strike
title The response of zircon to the extreme pressures and temperatures of a lightning strike
title_full The response of zircon to the extreme pressures and temperatures of a lightning strike
title_fullStr The response of zircon to the extreme pressures and temperatures of a lightning strike
title_full_unstemmed The response of zircon to the extreme pressures and temperatures of a lightning strike
title_short The response of zircon to the extreme pressures and temperatures of a lightning strike
title_sort response of zircon to the extreme pressures and temperatures of a lightning strike
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7810979/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33452373
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81043-8
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