Eucrites, Terrestrial Basalts and Volcanic Processes on Vesta

Details Eucrites, Terrestrial Basalts and Volcanic Processes on Vesta Eucrites, Terrestrial Basalts and Volcanic Processes on Vesta

Jan 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996eiaf.conf...31t&link_type=abstract

Workshop on Evolution of Igneous Asteroids: Focus on Vesta and the HED Meterorites, p. 31

Other

Asteroids, Lava, Meteoritic Composition, Moon, Vesta Asteroid, Volcanoes, Volcanology, Basalt, Crystallization

Scientific paper

Basaltic eucrites contain information about volcanic processes that occurred under conditions different from those on the terrestrial planets and the Moon: lower gravity (0.03 g), no atmosphere, and low volatile contents (water free, much like the Moon). Vestan volcanism is thus an end member in studies of planetary volcanism. The eucritic crust of Vesta is between 10 km [1] and 25 km [2] thick, which comprises a volume between 0.85 and 2.0 x 107 kM3. The decay products of short-lived nuclides in basaltic eucrites [3] suggests volcanism lasted no longer than several million years; if 2 m.y., the estimated crustal volumes imply eruption rates of 4.5-1 0 kM3/yr. These volumes and emplacement times and rates are comparable to large igneous provinces on Earth [41, presenting the opportunity to study the formation of a large igneous province on a small planet with different heat sources, mantle dynamics, gravity, and tectonics. Theoretical studies of volcanic processes on asteroids are important but the only direct record we have at present of the nature of eruptive processes on Vesta are the original igneous textures of eucrites. To understand those textures and lava flow dynamics in general, we have been studying the textures of Hawai'ian and other terrestrial lava flows. Our preliminary results suggest that most eucrites crystallized in pahoehoelike flows, one cannot use grain sizes to deduce definitive flow thicknesses, but modeling suggests eruptions on Vesta generally formed wide flows a few meters thick.

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