First observation of coexisting crystalline and amorphous mineral phases in the Bhawad LL6 chondrite: Evidence from Micro-Raman spectroscopic studies

Abstract

We report here for the first time the detailed spectroscopic investigations on Bhawad meteorite using micro-Raman spectroscopic and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) investigation of the Bhawad LL6 ordinary chondrite, focusing on its mineralogical composition and carbonaceous phases. Raman spectroscopy reveals crystalline silicates including olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase, along with accessory chromite containing ≤ 20% of Al. Carbonaceous material exhibits broad I_D (∼ 1336 cm⁻¹) and I_G (∼ 1587 cm⁻¹) bands with an I_D / I_G ratio of ∼ 1.04, indicative of disordered graphite and nanocrystalline carbon, reflecting shock-induced metamorphism. High-pressure TiO₂ polymorphs are identified by characteristic Raman modes at 146, 394, 446, and 610 cm⁻¹. HR-TEM imaging confirms the presence of nanocrystalline TiO₂ particles embedded within amorphous carbonaceous matrices, demonstrating the coexistence of crystalline and amorphous phases. The Raman spectra of the Bhawad meteorite reveal the presence of high-temperature plagioclase phases, characterized by these distinct vibrational features. This observation indicates possible quenching of the melts having feldspar components, representing the complex thermal and shock metamorphic history of the meteorite. This coexistence of crystalline and amorphous phases highlights the complex thermal and shock history of the Bhawad meteorite, revealing insights into phase transitions and structural order-disorder phase transition induced by impact processes.

Keywords

Bhawad chondrite / Silicates / Carbonaceous material / Raman spectroscopy

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Bhaskar J. Saikia: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Conceptualization. G. Parthasarathy: Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Conceptualization. Binoy K. Saikia: Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Puja Bordoloi: Formal analysis, Data curation. Rashmi R. Borah: Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for the most con-structive comments, which have improved the manuscript. We thank Directors, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IITG) and North East Institute of Science and Technology (CSIR-NEIST) for providing experimental facilities for characterization of the meteorite. We also thank Dr. S. Sarmah, IIT Guwahati for his assis-tance in the micro-Raman spectroscopic analysis. GP is grateful to Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India for sup-porting under DAE-Raja Ramanna Chair Scheme.

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