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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 30, NO. 10, 1513, doi:10.1029/2003GL017082, 2003

Magmatic processes that produced lunar fire fountains

Linda T. Elkins-Tanton

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA


Nilanjan Chatterjee

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA


Timothy L. Grove

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA


Abstract

Reanalysis of the Apollo 15 A, B, and C green glass beads from slide 15426,72, led to the discovery of patchy, highly vesicular glass rims adhering to beads. These rims are high in S and Ni and low in MgO, but otherwise compositionally similar to the green glasses. We find that these rims represent a unique melt composition that places constraints on lunar magmatic processes. Combining the compositional data for the vesicular glass rims with new minor element data for the green glass beads leads us to hypothesize that the vesicular rim fluid originated near the green glass source, at about 2.2 GPa. These findings support the theory of a heterogeneous lunar mantle, and suggest that sulfur did not drive the eruption from depth, but that degassing volatiles into the vacuum did drive the final fire fountain eruption.

Received 7 February 2003; accepted 16 April 2003; published 22 May 2003.

Index Terms: 5455 Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Origin and evolution; 6250 Planetology: Solar System Objects: Moon (1221); 8450 Volcanology: Planetary volcanism (5480); 8414 Volcanology: Eruption mechanisms; 8439 Volcanology: Physics and chemistry of magma bodies.

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Citation: Elkins-Tanton, L. T., N. Chatterjee, and T. L. Grove (2003), Magmatic processes that produced lunar fire fountains, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(10), 1513, doi:10.1029/2003GL017082.