ABSTRACT Field, microtextural, and geochemical evidence from impact-related melt rocks at the Manicouagan structure, Québec, Canada, allows the distinction to be made between friction-generated (pseudotachylite) and shock-generated melts. Making this distinction is aided by the observation that a significant portion of the impact structure’s central peak is composed of anorthosite that was not substantially involved in the production of impact melt. The anorthosite contrasts with the ultrabasic, basic, intermediate, and acidic gneisses that were consumed by decompression melting of the >60 GPa portion of the target volume to form the main impact melt body. The anorthosite was located below this melted volume at the time of shock loading and decompression, and it was subsequently brought to the surface from 7–10 km depth during the modification stage. Slip systems (faults) within the anorthosite that facilitated its elevation and collapse are occupied by pseudotachylites possessing anorthositic compositions. The Manicouagan pseudotachylites were not shock generated; however, precursor fracture-fault systems may have been initiated or reactivated by shock wave passage, with subsequent tectonic displacement and associated frictional melting occurring after shock loading and rarefaction. Pseudotachylites may inject off their generation planes to form complex intrusive systems that are connected to, but are spatially separated from, their source horizons. Comparisons are made between friction and shock melts from Manicouagan with those developed in the Vredefort and Sudbury impact structures, both of which show similar characteristics. Overall, pseudotachylite has compositions that are more locally derived. Impact melts have compositions reflective of a much larger source volume (and typically more varied source lithology inputs). For the Manicouagan, Vredefort, and Sudbury impact structures, multiple target lithologies were involved in generating their respective main impact melt bodies. Consequently, impact melt and pseudotachylite can be discriminated on compositional grounds, with assistance from field and textural observations. Pseudotachylite and shock-generated impact melt are not the same products, and it is important not to conflate them; each provides valuable insight into different stages of the hypervelocity impact process.

We explore the formation conditions and inheritance probability of zircon in impact melts and the implications of using zircon geochronology to investigate planetary impact histories. By modeling the occurrence and crystallization temperature spectrum for zircon in simulated impact melts, we predict the presence of such grains within impactites. We also report U-Pb geochronology of sieve-textured, possibly poikilitic, zircon identified in the pseudotachylyte and granophyre units present within the largest known terrestrial impact crater (Vredefort, South Africa) to explore the accuracy of these grains in dating impact events at an impact structure of known age. Zircons with similar textures have been recently interpreted as growing in an impact melt in lunar meteorite SaU 169 and used to determine the age of the Imbrium impact. Modeling in simulated lunar melt compositions predicts crystallization of zircon in merely ~2% of melting events, in this case via impact. The modeled crystallization temperature spectrum is significantly below Ti-in-zircon crystallization temperatures reported from lunar samples. Zircon formation within an impact melt is dictated by saturation of [Zr] and requires a high abundance for lunar melt compositions. This essentially rules out the possibility of zircon growing in equilibrium with lunar meteorites. Poikilitic textures may be inherited from the lunar crust, presumably due to rapid decompression and/or resorption into an undersaturated magma, as previously recognized in plagioclase. Although either scenario could be due to an impact, endogenic processes cannot be ruled out, and thus lunar poikilitic zircons may not be recording impact melting events. Secondary ion mass spectrometry U-Pb analysis of zircon with similar textures from Vredefort clearly shows that these grains are inherited from the Archean target rocks, with varying degrees of Pb loss, and consequently cannot be used to accurately identify the age of the Vredefort impact structure. Further understanding of the growth and isotopic effects on zircon of shock and heating associated with large impacts could provide another tool that can be used to probe planetary impact histories.