The Volatile Content of the Lunar Volcanic Glasses and the Presence of Water in the Moon's Interior

Details The Volatile Content of the Lunar Volcanic Glasses and the Presence of Water in the Moon's Interior The Volatile Content of the Lunar Volcanic Glasses and the Presence of Water in the Moon's Interior

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.5703s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #57.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.501

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The composition and origin of the lunar volatiles has been the subject of considerable interest and is one of the most important unsolved questions regarding the formation of the Moon. The general consensus today is that the Moon formed and evolved through a single or a series of catastrophic heating events, during which most of the highly volatile elements were lost. Hydrogen, being the lightest element, is thought to have been completely lost during this period.
Here we report, by virtue of major advances in secondary ion mass spectrometry, improved limits on the indigenous volatile (CO2, H2O, F, S, Cl) contents of the most primitive basalts in the Moon, the lunar volcanic glasses from Apollo 15. Three outstanding features of the data are: 1) the significant correlation among H2O, Cl, F and S contents, 2) the clear relationship between the volatile and the major element contents, and 3) the volatiles concentration profiles within a single selected glass bead with decreasing contents from the core to the rim.
The new data indicate that H2O and the other volatiles are indigenous to the Moon and that the volatile contents in the volcanic glasses were affected by degassing processes during the fire-fountain style of eruption. Although the pre-eruptive water content of the lunar volcanic glasses cannot be precisely constrained, numerical modeling of diffusive degassing of the very-low-Ti glasses provides a best estimate of 745 ppm water, with a minimum of 260 ppm at the 95% confidence level.
Our results indicate that, contrary to prevailing ideas, the bulk Moon might not be entirely depleted in highly volatile elements, including water. Thus, the presence of water must be considered in models constraining the Moon's formation and its thermal and chemical evolution.
Acknowledgement: Funding for our research came from NASA Cosmochemistry Program.

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