Meteoritics & Planetary Science 40, Nr 6, 855–868 (2005) Abstract available online at http://meteoritics.org Thermal history of the enstatite chondrites from silica polymorphs M. KIMURA1*, M. K. WEISBERG2, Y. LIN3, A. SUZUKI4, E. OHTANI4, and R. OKAZAKI5 1Faculty of Science, Ibaraki University, Mito 310-8512, Japan 2Department of Physical Sciences, Kingsborough College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, New York 11235, and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York 10024, USA 3State Key Laboratory of Lithosphere Tectonic Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China 4Institute of Mineralogy, Petrology, and Economic Geology, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan 5Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan *Corresponding author. E-mail:
[email protected] (Received 18 January 2005; revision accepted 14 April 2005) Abstract–Here we report the results of our petrologic and mineralogical study of enstatite (E) chondrites in order to explore their thermal histories. We studied silica phases in 20 E chondrites by laser micro Raman spectroscopy to determine the silica polymorphs they contain. Silica phases are commonly present in E chondrites and their polymorphs reflect the physical conditions of formation. The samples studied here include EH3–5, EL3–6, E chondrite melt rocks, and an anomalous E chondrite. We identified quartz, tridymite, cristobalite, and silica glass in the samples studied. EH4– 5 and EH melt rocks are divided into high and low temperature classes based on niningerite- alabandite solid solutions.