Dunite channels as viable pathways for mare basalt transport in the deep lunar mantle

An Apollo 15 mare basalt fragment and lunar mare provinces

Lunar sample 15474,4 is a tiny fragment of olivine-augite vitrophyre that is a mare basalt. Although petrographically distinct from all other Apollo 15 samples, it has been ignored since its first brief description. Our new petrographic and mineral chemical data show that the olivines and pyroxenes are distinct from those in other basalts. The basalt cooled and solidified extremely rapidly; som...

Water in Lunar Mare Basalt: Confirmation from Apatite in Lunar Basalt 14053

Mare Tranquillitatis: Basalt emplacement history and relation to lunar samples

Galileo and Clementine multispectral data of the Mare Tranquillitatis region have been analyzed to investigate the stratigraphy of basaltic units and the effects of lateral and vertical mixing processes within the mare. The distribution of compositionally distinct mare units is observed to be correlated with previous UV/VIS ratio images, although estimates of soil titanium contents are low in s...

Melting in the Deep Lunar Mantle

Introduction: Whereas previous experimental studies [1,2,3] and interpretation of Apollo seismic experiments [4,5] are permissive for garnet in the deep lunar mantle, interpretations of Lu-Hf isotopic systematics [6] and trace element data [7] seem to require garnet in the source of selected mare basalts. Understanding the mineralogy of the deep lunar mantle is critical to our further interpret...

Lunar basalt chronology, mantle differentiation and implications for determining the age of the Moon

a Department of Geosciences, Swedish Museum of Natural History, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden b Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia c Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden d Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, CNRS, UP...