Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmdi33b..08s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #DI33B-08
Other
[5430] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Interiors, [5440] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Magnetic Fields And Magnetism
Scientific paper
The discovery of remnant magnetization in returned Apollo samples and the lunar crust has long suggested that the Moon has a metallic core and once had a core-dynamo magnetic field (Fuller and Cisowski, 1987). However, the association of magnetization with the antipodes of impact basins suggests that meteoroid impacts may also be the source of lunar magnetization (e.g., Hood and Artemieva, 2008). Distinguishing between these two hypotheses is difficult as most lunar samples are poor recorders of paleomagnetic fields (Fuller and Cisowski, 1987; Tikoo et al., 2010). Since impact-generated shock waves can remagnetize low-coercivity (<~30 mT) grains, samples must have high coercivities and show no petrographic evidence for shock (Gattacceca et al., 2009). Recent paleomagnetic analyses of one lunar sample, troctolite 76535, observed a stable NRM blocked up to >200 mT (Garrick-Bethell et al., 2009). The slow cooling timescale of this rock (millions of years) relative the lifetime of impact-produced fields (<1 day maximum) suggests that the moon had a core dynamo at 4.2 Ga. We present a new paleomagnetic study of another high coercivity, unshocked lunar rock, mare basalt 10020. This sample records evidence for lunar magnetism 500 Ma after troctolite 76535. Our results suggest it too has a stable NRM acquired over timescales that are long relative to impact-produced fields. 10020 is a fine-grained, vesicular, ilmenite basalt with a 40Ar/39Ar age of 3.72 ±0.04 Ga that is within error of Rb/Sr crystallization ages of similar composition Apollo 11 basalts (Geiss et al., 1977, Guggisberg et al., 1979). Collinson et al. (1972) and Stephenson et al. 1977 found that a 10020 has one of the most stable NRMs of any studied lunar sample (blocked up to >65 mT). We have now found that two mutually oriented samples of 10020 have a stable (> 65-80 mT) origin-trending unidirectional NRM component. Petrographic analyses of this sample find no evidence for shock such as alteration to maskelynite or fracturing. Pressure remanent experiments on 10020 show that the magnetism could not have been produced by an impact. We therefore suggest that the magnetization recorded in 10020 was generated by a core dynamo. We are currently conducting Ar/Ar dating and further magnetic analyses to further test this hypothesis.
Fuller Michael M.
Gattacceca Jérôme
Grove Timothy L.
Shea Erin K.
Shuster David L.
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