Titanium oxidation state and coordination in the lunar high-titanium glass source mantle

Conference · Fri Mar 20 04:00:00 EDT 2009

OSTI ID:1009058

Krawczynski, M J; Sutton, S R; Grove, T L; Newville, M ^[1]

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1. MIT

XANES and EXAFS spectra from synthetic HiTi lunar glasses determine coordination of Ti in the HiTi source region. The amount of Ti{sup 3+} present affects the olivine-opx equilibrium, and the total amount of Ti{sup 3+} present requires a pyx bearing source. Lunar high-titanium (HiTi) ultramafic glasses provide us with evidence of the mantle processes that led to the melting of the lunar magma ocean cumulates nearly one billion years after the magma ocean solidified. Constraints on the depth, temperature and melting processes that formed the HiTi glasses are crucial for understanding the melting history of LMO products. The Apollo 17 orange glass (A17O) and Apollo 15 red glass (A15R) represent two of the HiTi compositions in the spectrum of pristine ultramafic glasses returned from the moon. The difference between these two compositions is that the A15R contains {approx}40% more TiO{sub 2} than the A17O. The low f{sub O2} of the ultramafic glass source regions allows for a certain amount of Ti{sup 3+} in the source mineralogy; however the amount of Ti{sup 3+} in the source and the host mineral for this element remain relatively unconstrained. In addition to the unknown mineralogy of the source region, the high amount of TiO*{sub 2} and FeO* in the HiTi magmas makes the phase relations extremely sensitive to changes in the oxidation state of the source region. We have previously investigated the oxidation state effect on the olivine-orthopyroxene multiple saturations points of the A15R and A17O and shown that the magnitude of the effect is proportional to the amount of Ti in the system. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) measurements have been made on minerals and glasses in experiments on synthetic analogues to the A17O and A15R. Our results show that Ti{sup 3+} concentration does indeed affect the multiple saturation points, and is an important constituent in the lunar interior.

• Research Organization: Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1009058
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABSORPTION
FINE STRUCTURE
GLASS
MAGMA
MELTING
MINERALOGY
MOON
SATURATION
SPECTRA
SPECTROSCOPY
TITANIUM
VALENCE