Native Nickel–Iron Metals from Lonar Crater Impactites (India) and Regolith of the Moon

Abstract—

The Lonar crater (India) is the best preserved and most studied on Earth, formed in basalts, which makes it possible to conduct a comparative study with impact transformations of mineral matter on the Moon and other planets of the Solar System. Comparative studies have shown that impactor material, both on the Earth and on the Moon, is present in impactites not only in a geochemically dispersed form, as previously thought, but also in the form of individual submicron particles distributed in the molten target material. These are particles of native nickel, taenite, and high-nickel kamacite, which, apparently, are the transformed material of the impactor. High-nickel submicron metal inclusions are widespread in the impactites of the Lonar crater, as they were found in all studied preparations made from materials collected from different points along the rim of the crater. The high-nickel particles found in this study are an additional argument in favor of the previously stated assumption about the chondrite type of impactor.