¹Shigeko Togashi,¹Akihiko Tomiya,²Noriko T.Kita,^1,3Yuichi Morishita
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2021.12.029]
¹Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, Central 7, Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8567, Japan
²Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin, Madison 1215 W. Dayton Street Madison, WI 53706-1692, USA
³Shizuoka University, 836 Ohya, Suruga-ku, Shizuoka 422-8529, Japan
Copyright Elsevier

The origin of the KREEP (K, Rare Earth Element and P)-rich component of the Mg-suite rocks of the Procellarum KREEP Terrane (PKT), one of three major lunar crustal terranes, is unclear. In an attempt to determine its origin, we estimated the composition of host magmas of plutonic rocks, including Mg-suite rocks and evolved rocks, from the PKT (PKT-host magmas) by using secondary ion mass spectrometry analyses of plagioclase. Calculated partition coefficients for Sr, Ba and Ti between plagioclase and melts, taking into account the anorthite content of plagioclase, temperature and bulk rock major-element compositions, were applied to determine parental magma compositions. The PKT-host magmas contained 160–360 ppm Sr, 520–7600 ppm Ba and 1.1–7.0 wt.% TiO2; most of them had higher Ti and Ba concentrations than KREEP basalts and high-K KREEP. We used phase relations based on the Rhyolite-MELTS algorithm to explore the evolution of the PKT-host magmas and KREEP basalts from two bulk silicate moon (BSM) starting compositions, a BSM with chondritic ratios of refractory elements, and a crustal-component-enriched BSM with non-chondritic ratios of refractory elements. We propose a three-stage evolution model. Stage-1: polybaric multi-step fractionation from a BSM magma to form ferroan anorthosite (FAN) crust and an evolved magma as the first KREEP-rich component (M0). Stage-2: assimilation and fractional crystallization (AFC) of M0, early cumulate and FAN associated with deep mantle overturn and impact events to form the PKT-host magmas, Mg-suite rocks and an evolved magma as the second KREEP-rich component (K0). Stage-3: further AFC cycles of K0, Mg-suite rocks or FAN associated with shallow mantle overturn and impact events to form KREEP basalts. This three-stage model for a crustal-component-enriched BSM with non-chondritic ratios of refractory elements (e.g., a sub-chondritic Ti/Ba ratio) reproduced the compositions of both the host magmas of FAN and the PKT-host magmas that fractionated to form the Mg-suite rocks and KREEP basalts of the PKT region. In particular, the model reproduced the high Ti and Ba contents of the PKT-host magmas we estimated from plagioclase composition. Variations of TiO2 and Ba contents (and hence Ti/Ba ratios) of the magmas were critical controls on their evolution.

¹François Robert,²Marc Chaussidon,²Adriana Gonzalez-Cano,¹Smail Mostefaoui
Proceeding sof the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2114221118]
¹Institut Origine et Evolution, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Université, IMPMC-UMR 7590 CNRS, 75005 Paris, France;
²Université de Paris, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS, F-75005 Paris, France

Enrichment or depletion ranging from −40 to +100% in the major isotopes ¹⁶O and ²⁴Mg were observed experimentally in solids condensed from carbonaceous plasma composed of CO₂/MgCl₂/Pentanol or N₂O/Pentanol for O and MgCl₂/Pentanol for Mg. In NanoSims imaging, isotope effects appear as micrometer-size hotspots embedded in a carbonaceous matrix showing no isotope fractionation. For Mg, these hotspots are localized in carbonaceous grains, which show positive and negative isotopic effects so that the whole grain has a standard isotope composition. For O, no specific structure was observed at hotspot locations. These results suggest that MIF (mass-independent fractionation) effects can be induced by chemical reactions taking place in plasma. The close agreement between the slopes of the linear correlations observed between δ²⁵Mg versus δ²⁶Mg and between δ¹⁷O versus δ¹⁸O and the slopes calculated using the empirical MIF factor η discovered in ozone [M. H. Thiemens, J. E. Heidenreich, III. Science 219, 1073–1075; C. Janssen, J. Guenther, K. Mauersberger, D. Krankowsky. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 3, 4718–4721] attests to the ubiquity of this process. Although the chemical reactants used in the present experiments cannot be directly transposed to the protosolar nebula, a similar MIF mechanism is proposed for oxygen isotopes: at high temperature, at the surface of grains, a mass-independent isotope exchange could have taken place between condensing oxides and oxygen atoms originated form the dissociation of CO or H₂O gas.