Posteucritic magmatism on Vesta: Evidence from the petrology and thermal history of diogenites

Overview & Synopsis

We report on the petrology and the thermal histories of 13 diogenites in order to constrain the formation processes of the Vestan crust. We classify diogenites into unequilibrated and equilibrated diogenites in a scheme similar to that for basaltic eucrites. Pyroxenes in unequilibrated diogenites are chemically zoned, indicating that they crystallized rapidly from melts and escaped from global crustal metamorphism. The presence of unequilibrated diogenites casts doubt on the fact that all the diogenites formed at depth in the parent body, as commonly thought. Some diogenites probably crystallized in shallow intrusions or were extruded on the surface. These facts strengthen the geochemical evidence that diogenites and eucrites are not directly cogenetic and suggest that at least some diogenites have intruded the early formed eucritic crust. Thus, diogenites are certainly not the products of the crystallization of the magma ocean that triggered the differentiation of Vesta but are more likely cumulates associated with a later stage of magmatism. Furthermore, the intrusion of diogenites could have significantly thickened the early formed crust, making it difficult to excavate deep‐seated olivine mantle by moderate impact events.