Background/Overview: Most differentiated rocky worlds in our Solar System have mantles of olivine, pyroxene, spinel, and calcic plagioclase (or equivalent high-pressure phase assemblages). Earth’s mantle peridotite and similar rocks in other silicate planets and asteroids normally melt to form basaltic magma, komatiite, or other olivinenormative melts. Details of planetary mantle compositions a...

Introduction: Defining the mineralogy and composition of martian mantle source regions has proved to be a difficult task because: (1) the martian sample set does not include samples of the mantle, and (2) many of the samples are either cumulates or are highly fractionated and therefore not in equilibrium with the mantle. Despite these complexities, isotopic evidence suggests that Mars had a mag...

Explosive volcanic eruption requires that magma fragments into discrete parcels. Silicic magma can fragment through brittle failure or other processes that depend on the viscoelasticity of the melt. Owing to the low viscosity of basaltic magmas, however, the fragmentation mechanism must be different and will be governed by fluid mechanics alone. We perform a series of decompression experiments ...

The present-day inclination of the Moon reflects the entire history of its thermal and orbital evolution. The Moon likely possessed a global magma ocean following the Moon-forming impact. In this work, we develop a coupled thermal-orbital evolution model that takes into account obliquity tidal heating in the lunar magma ocean. Dissipation in the magma ocean is so effective that it results in ra...

An integrated study involving whole-rock and Sr–Nd–Hf isotope geochemistry and zircon geochronology and trace element combined with detailed field investigation was carried out for the composite Meiwu batholith in the West Qinling orogenic belt of central China to probe the origins of its compositional diversity and its emplacement history. The batholith is composed of quartz diorite, granodior...

By left magma-$e$-magma, I mean a set containingthe fixed element $e$, and equipped by two binary operations "$cdot$", $odot$ with the property $eodot (xcdot y)=eodot(xodot y)$, namelyleft $e$-join law. So, $(X,cdot,e,odot)$ is a left magma-$e$-magmaif and only if $(X,cdot)$, $(X,odot)$ are magmas (groupoids), $ein X$ and the left $e$-join law holds.Right (and two-sided) magma-$e$-magmas are de...

Let I be a non empty set, let F be a group-like multiplicative magma family of I, and let i be an element of I. Note that F (i) is group-like. Let I be a non empty set, let F be an associative multiplicative magma family of I, and let i be an element of I. Observe that F (i) is associative. Let I be a non empty set, let F be a commutative multiplicative magma family of I, and let i be an elemen...

The lunar magma ocean model is a well-established theory of the early evolution of the Moon. By this model, the Moon was initially largely molten and the anorthositic crust that now covers much of the lunar surface directly crystallized from this enormous magma source. We are undertaking a study of the geochemical characteristics of anorthosites from lunar meteorites to test this model. Rare ea...

[1] A mechanism for explosive volcanic eruptions based on multicomponent phase equilibria modelling of four explosive volcanic systems is proposed. In each system, either isochoric or isobaric crystallization, where either crystals or crystals and exsolved fluid are chemically fractionated from melt, leads inevitably to near-solidus dynamical instability culminating in violent explosive eruptio...

Small-scale continental flood basalts are a global phenomenon characterized by regular spatio-temporal distributions. However, no genetic mechanism has been proposed to explain the visible but overlooked distribution patterns of these continental basaltic volcanism. Here we present a case study from eastern China, combining major and trace element analyses with Ar-Ar and K-Ar dating to show tha...