Physics
Scientific paper
Sep 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999sosyr..33..392k&link_type=abstract
Solar System Research, vol. 33, p. 392 (1999)
Physics
Scientific paper
Present-day physical theories of lunar formation suggest that the lunar mantle was partially or completely molten about 4.5 billion years ago. As is expected, the phase separation of this hypothetical ocean could result in the stratification of the initially homogeneous mantle into reservoirs of different chemical composition. Because of the poor knowledge of the physical phenomena connected with the multiphase system differentiation, many aspects of the evolution of partially molten zones remain disputable. In this study the simulation of liquid and crystal separation in a high-temperature centrifuge was carried out. The experimental results at temperatures of 1180, 1190, and 1195 deg C demonstrated that the pyroxene + olivine + plagioclase + magnetite + melt mixture experienced a profound differentiation and formation of four distinct accumulated layers: (i) plagioclase layer, (ii) accumulated melt layer, (iii) pyroxene-olivine layer enriched in magnetite, (iv) bottom pyroxene-olivine-magnetite cumulate. The effective extraction of plagioclases from the partially molten zone of the Moon at a low melt fraction and their accumulation in the anorthosite layer (crust) as well as the formation of an ilmenite layer in the Moon's interior are assumed to be the result of the differentiation of the magma ocean under the conditions of multiphase convection. Experiments on the plagioclase-olivine-basaltic melt mixture support the idea that at a high fraction of the melt and its turbulent motion, crystals do not settle down, i.e., a nonfractional crystallization of the melt takes place. This phenomenon is also expected to be revealed in the case of the Moon's magma ocean at its initial stage, when the fraction of the magmatic melt is high enough to develop turbulent convection.
Kadik Arnold
Lebedev E. B.
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