^1,2,3Yiping Yang et al. (>10)
American Mineralogist 111, 1036-1045 Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2025-9674]
¹Key Laboratory for Deep Earth Processes and Strategic Mineral Resources, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
²Center for Advanced Planetary Science (CAPS), Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
³Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Physics and Materials, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Copyright: The Mineralogical Society of America

Mineral structures record the formation and evolution of the Earth-Moon system. Here we report the discovery of correlated disorder in a silicate mineral kuratite [ideal formula ], which cannot be well documented by classical crystallography, in breccia clasts from near and far sides of the Moon. We employed the advanced three-dimensional electron diffraction (3DED) method in combination with spherical aberration corrected transmission electron microscopy to thoroughly characterize its structural features. The results indicate that the kuratite, coexisting with dendritic pigeonite and ulvöspinel, displays intricate correlated disorder features. These are characterized by alternating arrangements of five correlated site pairs confined within a single disordered layer. The occurrence of a vitrified dendritic pigeonite with similar composition suggests that kuratite formed during the impact-induced melting-cooling processes. This finding shows consistency in impact-driven surface processes between the lunar near and far sides, while demonstrating the utility of advanced nanoscale crystallographic methods for decoding extraterrestrial mineral formation mechanisms.