Formation of a metastable hollandite phase from amorphous plagioclase: A possible origin of lingunite in shocked chondritic meteorites

- Lingunite was found first to crystallize from amorphous oligoclase as a metastable phase.
- This process might account for the origin of lingunite found along with maskelynite in shocked chondritic meteorites.
- Metastable lingunite appeared at ∼20-24 GPa and ∼1100-1300 °C in laboratory timescales.
- It might also form at the higher temperatures and shorter time periods of shock events.
- The hollandite phase was not observed when using albite or labradorite as starting materials.

We conducted high-pressure experiments in plagioclase with different anorthite contents at 18-27 GPa and 25-1750 °C using both a laser-heated diamond anvil cell and a Kawai-type multi-anvil apparatus to clarify the formation conditions of the hollandite phase in shocked chondritic and Martian meteorites. Lingunite (NaAlSi3O8-rich hollandite) was found first to crystallize from amorphous oligoclase as a metastable phase before decomposing into the final stable state. This process might account for the origin of lingunite found along with maskelynite in shocked chondritic meteorites. Metastable lingunite appeared at ∼20-24 GPa and ∼1100-1300 °C in laboratory tests lasting tens of minutes; however, it might also form at the higher temperatures and shorter time periods of shock events. In contrast, the hollandite phase was not observed during any stage of crystallization when using albite or labradorite as starting materials. The formation process of (Ca,Na)-hollandite in the labradorite composition found in Martian shergottites remains unresolved. The orthoclase contents of the hollandite phase both in shocked meteorites (2.4-8.2 mol%) and our oligoclase sample (3.9 mol%) are relatively high compared to the albite and labradorite samples (0.6 and 1.9 mol%, respectively). This might critically affect the crystallization kinetics of hollandite phase.