Vincent Mugica, MS candidate

Hypervelocity impacts are the most important process in the entire field of Geology. Meteorites are the fragmented ejecta created during cosmic impact events and display evidence for shock metamorphism. This Master’s thesis seeks to characterize the shock micro-deformation of 3 L-chondrites, Buck Mountains 005, Tenham and NWA 11230 in order to reconstruct the shock conditions and petrogenesis of these meteorites. This has been done using a chemical-crystallographic technique, that entails the SEM-EDS-EBSD system at the Center for Electron Microscopy and Nanomaterials (CEMN) at PSU. This chemical-crystallographic technique has allowed us to determine (1) similar shock deformational systematics across differentially shocked meteorites and (2) highly variable magmatic processes occurring within meteorite shock melt veins (SMVs). This work has contributed to the field of meteorite shock science by correlating shock deformational trends as observed with EBSD to findings that utilize other methods such as Transmission Electron and Optical Microscopy. The chemical-crystallographic methods used in this study demonstrate promise in future work applied to other shocked meteorite classes and clans.

I am humbled to announce that I am finishing up this Master’s thesis in part with the generous help of the Geological Society of the Oregon Country (GSOC) and am currently writing up the rough draft of the thesis at this moment. We have successfully analyzed 3 rare, highly shocked L-chondrite samples, using the SEM-EDS-EBSD system at the Center for Electron Microscopy and Nanomaterials (CEMN) at PSU. I am currently at the writing stage of my Master’s thesis process.

I have a projected completion date on June 2026.