Recipe for High-Titanium Lunar Magmas

Details Recipe for High-Titanium Lunar Magmas Recipe for High-Titanium Lunar Magmas

Dec 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000psrd.repte..44t&link_type=abstract

Planetary Science Research Discoveries

Other

Lunar, Volcanic, Glass, Magma, Titanium

Scientific paper

In one hypothesis the ilmenite-pyroxene layer sank and mixed with low-titanium rocks inside the Moon. This produced a hybrid rock that later melted to form high-titanium magma. In a second hypothesis, low-titanium magma oozes upwards in the Moon and reacts with the ilmenite-pyroxene layer, producing a magma high in titanium. James Van Orman and Timothy Grove (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) question both ideas. Their skepticism is based on the density and ease of flow of the ilmenite-pyroxene layer and on the rates of dissolution of ilmenite and pyroxene. To quantify their arguments, they performed a series of experiments. In one set, they determined the order of crystallization in the ilmenite-pyroxene layer. In the other series of experiments they measured the rate at which ilmenite and pyroxene dissolve in low-titanium magmas. Their work leads them to propose a third hypothesis that calls on shallow (just below the lunar crust) reaction and mixing of the molten ilmenite-pyroxene layer with underlying solids rich in the mineral olivine. This hybrid material would be able to sink readily, and eventually remelt deep inside the Moon.

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