High pressure solid state transformations at high strain rates are usually observed after the fact,
either during static holding or after unloading, or inferred from interferometry measurements of the
sample surface. The emergence of femtosecond X-ray diffraction techniques provides insight into
the dynamics of short-timescale events such as shocks. We report laser pump-probe experiments of
the response of Zr to laser driven shocks over the first few nanoseconds of the shock event, enabling
the α → ω transition and orientation relationship to be observed in real time with picosecond
resolution. A clear orientation relationship of (10¯10)α||(10¯11)ω is found, in conflict with ω → α
annealing experiments in zirconium and the two α → ω pathways proposed for titanium.