¹Yang Li, ^1,2Ai-Cheng Zhang, ¹Jia-Ni Chen, ³Li-Xin Gu, ¹Ru-Cheng Wang
American Mineralogist 102, 98-107 Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2017-5881]
¹State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, China
²Lunar and Planetary Science Institute, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, China
³Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Copyright: The Mineralogical Society of America

Phosphorus-rich olivine (P2O5 > 1 wt%) is a mineral that has been reported only in a few terrestrial and extraterrestrial occurrences. Previous investigations suggest that P-rich olivine mainly forms through rapid crystallization from high-temperature P-rich melts. Here, we report a new occurrence of P-rich olivine in an ungrouped carbonaceous chondrite Dar al Gani (DaG) 978. The P-rich olivine in DaG 978 occurs as lath-shaped grains surrounding low-Ca pyroxene and olivine grains. The lath-shaped olivine shows a large variation in P2O5 (0–5.5 wt%). The P-rich olivine grains occur in a chondrule fragment and is closely associated with chlorapatite, merrillite, FeNi metal, and troilite. Tiny Cr-rich hercynite is present as inclusions within the P-rich olivine. The lath-shaped texture and the association with Cr-rich hercynite indicates that the P-rich olivine in DaG 978 formed by replacing low-Ca pyroxene precursor by a P-rich fluid during a thermal event, rather than by crystallization from a high-temperature melt. The large variation of P2O5 within olivine grains on micrometer-scale indicates a disequilibrium formation process of the P-rich olivine. The occurrence of P-rich olivine in DaG 978 reveals a new formation mechanism of P-rich olivine.

¹Edgar S. Steenstra, ¹Yanhao Lin, ^2,3Nachiketa Rai, ¹Max Jansen,¹Wim van Westrenen
American Mineralogist 102,  92-97 Link to Article [doi:10.2138/am-2017-5727]
¹Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
²Centre for Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck–UCL, London, U.K.
³Department of Earth Sciences, Mineral and Planetary Sciences Division, Natural History Museum, London, U.K.
Copyright: the Mineralogical Society of America

Geophysical and geochemical observations point to the presence of a light element in the lunar core, but the exact abundance and type of light element are poorly constrained. Accurate constraints on lunar core composition are vital for models of lunar core dynamo onset and demise, core formation conditions (e.g., depth of the lunar magma ocean or LMO) and therefore formation conditions, as well as the volatile inventory of the Moon. A wide range of previous studies considered S as the dominant light element in the lunar core. Here, we present new constraints on the composition of the lunar core, using mass-balance calculations, combined with previously published models that predict the metal–silicate partitioning behavior of C, S, Ni, and recently proposed new bulk silicate Moon (BSM) abundances of S and C. We also use the bulk Moon abundance of C and S to assess the extent of their devolatilization. We observe that the Ni content of the lunar core becomes unrealistically high if shallow (< 3 GPa) LMO scenarios are considered for S and C. The moderately siderophile metal–silicate partitioning behavior of S during lunar core formation, combined with the low BSM abundance of S, yields only < 0.16 wt% S in the core, virtually independent of the pressure (P) and temperature (T) conditions during core formation. Instead, our analysis suggests that C is the dominant light element in the lunar core. The siderophile behavior of C during lunar core formation results in a core C content of ~0.6–4.8 wt%, with the exact amount depending on the core formation conditions. A C-rich lunar core could explain (1) the existence of a present-day molten outer core, (2) the estimated density of the lunar outer core, and (3) the existence of an early lunar core dynamo driven by compositional buoyancy due to core crystallization. Finally, our calculations suggest the C content of the bulk Moon is close to its estimated abundance in the bulk silicate Earth (BSE), suggesting more limited volatile loss during the Moon-forming event than previously thought.