Petrogenesis of lunar meteorite Northwest Africa 2977: Constraints from in situ microprobe results

Abstract– Northwest Africa (NWA) 2977 is an olivine‐gabbro lunar meteorite that has a distinctly different petrographic texture from other lunar basalts. We studied this rock with a series of in situ analytical methods. NWA 2977 consists mainly of olivine and pyroxene with minor plagioclase. It shows evidence of intense shock metamorphism, locally as high as shock‐stage S6. Olivine adjacent to a melt vein has been partially transformed into ringwoodite and Al,Ti‐rich chromite grains have partially transformed into their high‐pressure polymorph (possibly CaTi₂O₄‐structure). Olivine in NWA 2977 contains two types of lithic inclusions. One type is present as Si,Al‐rich melt inclusions that are composed of glass and, in most cases, dendritic pyroxene. The other type is mafic and composed of relatively coarse‐grained augite with accessory chromite, RE‐merrillite, and baddeleyite. Two Si,Al‐rich melt inclusions are heavy rare earth elements (REE) enriched, whereas the mafic inclusion has high REE concentrations and a KREEP‐like pattern. The mafic inclusion could be a relict fragment captured during the ascent of the parent magma of NWA 2977, whereas the Si,Al‐rich inclusions may represent the original NWA 2977 melt. The calculated whole‐rock composition has a KREEP‐like REE pattern, suggesting that NWA 2977 has an affinity to KREEP rocks. Baddeleyite has recorded a young crystallization age of 3123 ± 7 Ma (2σ), which is consistent with results from previous whole‐rock and mineral Sm‐Nd and Rb‐Sr studies. The petrography, mineralogy, trace element geochemistry, and young crystallization age of NWA 2977 support the possibility of pairing between NWA 2977 and the olivine‐gabbro portion of NWA 773.     

月球上的"水"

在地球科学的各个领域中,在行星演化学和太空探索中,水都是不可缺少的元素。长久以来,我们一直认为月球是干燥的。然而最新的研究成果推翻了这个观点。近期的遥感探测和撞月实验表明,月球表面不仅含有结构水(OH和H₂O), 而且还有固态冰的存在。对月球火山玻璃和玄武岩的磷灰石重新分析也发现了这些玻璃中的OH,揭示了月球内部有水的存在。这个发现,意味着我们可能需要重新审视现有的月球火山活动和演化的模式。月表水和内部水的存在,还为未来以月球为跳板进行太空探索,提供了重要的资源。这里,我们对月表水和内部水的研究作一总结,并就这些发现的意义展开讨论。     

Seismically induced soft-sediment microstructures (seismites) from Meikleour, western Strathmore, Scotland

At the distal portion of a large glacial outwash fan in eastern Scotland, a suite of both macro- and microstructures was examined. The macrostructures reveal intense soft-sediment deformation indicative of liquefaction, fluidization and loading processes possibly associated with neotectonic effects of seismic activity along the nearby Highland Boundary Fault. The section at Meikleour has already been examined at the macroscale and an interpretation put forward. In a follow-up study, microstructures were examined using micromorphological techniques to attempt to establish if this technique could be successfully used, and to reconsider the macroscale interpretation. In light of micromorphological analyses, a similar interpretation of neotectonic deformations associated with seismic activity is suggested. Microstructures, never hitherto observed in fine glaciofluvial outwash, were interpreted as those possibly associated with strong seismic tremors, since no evidence existed for subsequent overriding by glacial ice, mass movement or related processes that might otherwise explain such unusual microstructures. This work further establishes the validity and reliability in using micromorphological analyses.     

Vesta as the howardite,eucrite and diogenite parent body: Implications for the size of a core and for large-scale differentiation

Abstract— If Vesta is the parent body of the howardite, eucrite, and diogenite (HED) meteorites, then geo-chemical and petrologic constraints for the meteorites may be used in conjunction with astronomical constraints for the size and mass of Vesta to (1) determine the size of a possible metal core in Vesta and (2) model the igneous differentiation and internal structure of Vesta. The density of Vesta and petrologic models for HED meteorites together suggest that the amount of metal in the parent body is <25 mass%, with a best estimate of ～5%, assuming no porosity. For a porosity of up to 5% in the silicate fraction of the asteroid, the permissible metal content is <30%. These results suggest that any metal core in the HED parent body and Vesta is not unusually large. A variety of geochemical and other data for HED meteorites are consistent with the idea that they originated in a magma ocean. It appears that diogenites formed by crystal accumulation in a magma ocean cumulate pile and that most noncumulate eucrites (excepting such eucrites as Bouvante and Statinem) formed by subsequent crystallization of the residual melts. Modelling results suggest that the HED parent body is enriched in rare earth elements by a factor of ～2.5–3.5 relative to CI-chondrites and that it has approximately chondritic Mg/Si and Al/Sc ratios. Stokes settling calculations for a Vesta-wide, nonturbulent magma ocean suggest that early-crystallizing magnesian olivine, orthopyroxene, and pigeonite would have settled relatively quickly, permitting fractional crystallization to occur, but that later-crystallizing phases would have settled (or floated) an order of magnitude more slowly, allowing, instead, a closer approach to equilibrium crystallization for the more evolved (eucritic) melts. This would have inhibited the formation of a plagioclase-flotation crust on Vesta. Plausible models for the interior of Vesta, which are consistent with the data for HED meteorites and Vesta, include a metal core (<130 km radius), an olivine-rich mantle (～65–220 km thick), a lower crustal unit (～12–43 km thick) composed of pyroxenite, from which diogenites were derived, and an upper crustal unit (～23–42 km thick), from which eucrites originated. The present shape of Vesta (with ～60 km difference in the maximum and minimum radius) suggests that all of the crustal materials, and possibly some of the underlying olivine from the mantle, could have been locally excavated or exposed by impact cratering.     

Comment on: “New” lunar meteorites: Impact melt and regolith breccias and large‐scale heterogeneities of the upper lunar crust,by P. H. Warren,F. Ulff‐Møller,and G. W. Kallemeyn

Abstract We described lunar meteorite Dhofar 026 (Cohen et al. 2004) and interpreted this rock as a strongly shocked granulitic breccia (or fragmental breccia consisting almost entirely of granulitic‐breccia clasts) that was partially melted by post‐shock heating. Warren et al. (2005) objected to many aspects of our interpretation: they were uncertain whether or not the bulk rock had been shocked; they disputed our identification of the precursor as granulitic breccia; and they suggested that mafic, igneous‐textured globules within the breccia, which we proposed were melted by post‐shock heating, are clasts with relict textures. The major evidence for shock of the bulk rock is the fact that the plagioclase in the lithologic domains that make up 80–90% of the rock is devitrified maskelynite. The major evidence for a granulitic‐breccia precursor is the texture of the olivine‐plagioclase domain that constitutes 40—45% of the rock; Warren et al. apparently overlooked or ignored this lithology. Textures of the mafic, igneous‐textured globules, and especially of the vesicles they contain, demonstrate that these bodies were melted and crystallized in situ. Warren et al. suggested that the rock might have originally been a regolith breccia, but the textural homogeneity of the rock and the absence of solar wind—derived noble gases preclude a regolith‐breccia precursor. Warren et al. classified the rock as an impact‐melt breccia, but they did not identify any fraction that was impact melt.     

A stable isotope study of the Mercia Mudstones (Keuper Marl) and associated sulphate horizons in the English Midlands

ABSTRACT Widespread evaporitic sulphate horizons occur in the frequently dolomitic Mercia Mudstones (Upper Triassic) of the English Midlands. The mudstones were deposited on an extensive peneplain which had areas of upstanding minor relief (Charnwood Massif, Derbyshire—Pennines, London Platform). Horst and graben structures formed during the early and middle Triassic, controlled late Triassic sedimentation rates and peneplain slope directions. A stable isotope study (S,C,O) of the sulphates and dolomites of the Trent Formation indicates that during the deposition of the lower Fauld Member grabens such as the Need wood Basin in Staffordshire and areas marginal to a graben such as Newark in Nottinghamshire had a marine brine regime with minor continental input. Using constraints applied by sulphate concentrations of modern waters in arid environments, the ratio of volume of marine input to volume of continental input lay between 3:1 and 4:1. The horst area (East Leake, Nottinghamshire) was strongly influenced by continental brines which derived sulphate from the exposed Carboniferous Hathern Anhydrite Series. A predominantly continental brine regime existed across the whole area during deposition of the overlying Hawton Member. Periodic marine influxes gave rise to thin sulphate horizons whilst continental run-off was occasionally sufficient to form temporary lakes. The Blue Anchor Formation (Rhaetian) was deposited in a lacustrine environment with waters of mixed marine and continental origin. Salinities were lower than those of the preceding Trent Formation brines.