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Title: Apollo 15 yellow-brown volcanic glass: Chemistry and petrogenetic relations to green volcanic glass and olivine-normative mare basalts

Journal Article · · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; (USA)
; ;  [1]
  1. State Univ. of New York, Albany (USA)

Apollo 15 yellow-brown glass is one of twenty-five, high Mg, primary magmas emplaced on the lunar surface in pyroclastic eruptions. Forty spherules of this glass were individually analyzed by electron microprobe and INAA for major- and trace-elements. The abundances demonstrate that this primary magma was produced by partial melting of differentiated cumulates in the lunar mantle. Models are developed to explain the possible source-regions of several Apollo 15 and Apollo 12 low-Ti mare magmas as being products of hybridization involving three ancient differentiated components of a primordial lunar magma ocean: (a) early olivine {plus minus} orthopyroxene cumulates; (b) late-stage clinopyroxene + pigeonite + ilmenite + plagioclase cumulates; and (c) late-stage inter-cumulus liquid.

OSTI ID:
5221516
Journal Information:
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; (USA), Vol. 52:10; ISSN 0016-7037
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English