Dacite formation on Vesta: Partial melting of the eucritic crust |
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| Authors: | Timothy M. Hahn Jr. Nicole G. Lunning Harry Y. McSween Jr. Robert J. Bodnar Lawrence A. Taylor |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Planetary Geoscience Institute, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA;2. Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, District of Columbia, USA;3. Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA |
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| Abstract: | The Dominion Range 2010 howardite pairing group contains an evolved lithic clast of dacite composition. The dacite contains an assemblage of plagioclase, quartz, and augite, with minor pigeonite, troilite, ilmenite, FeNi metal, K‐feldspar, and phosphates. Primary augite occurs as >1 mm oikocrysts enclosing plagioclase. Quartz is abundant, comprising approximately 30% of the clast. Textural and geochemical characteristics support the hypothesis that the dacite is a primary igneous lithology, and represents a partial melt of the eucritic crust. Numerical modeling (MELTS) suggests 10–20% partial melting of a Juvinas source could have produced the dacite lithology; quantitative trace element modeling further supports crustal partial melting as the magma source for the dacite. The dacite likely formed as evolved‐melt pockets, and thus represents a volumetrically minor lithology in the Vestan crust, although its formation provides direct support for a genetic relationship between Stannern and residual trend eucrites, and is the first identification of residual eucrite complementary melts. We propose the dacite clast is the first characterized sample of tertiary crust on Vesta. |
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