<p>The lunar mantle is important for unraveling the Moon’s formation and early differentiation processes. Here, we identify primitive lunar olivines in soils returned by the Chang’e-6 mission. These olivines have oxygen isotopic compositions plotting along the terrestrial fractionation line, and are characterized by high forsterite contents up to 95.6, and a broad range of nickel abundances from zero to 682 ppm. While the low-nickel (zero to 251 ppm), forsteritic olivines align with a Mg-suite origin, the most primitive, high-nickel olivines (337 to 682 ppm) have a different origin. They could be either the first olivine crystallized from the Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO) with an Earth-like initial composition, or crystallized from a hitherto unrecognized ultra-magnesian lava produced by extensive melting of the early LMO cumulate. The exposure of these mantle olivines was facilitated by their entrainment in ascending high-Mg lavas and conveyed to the surface at the South Pole-Aitken Basin.</p>

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Lunar primitive mantle olivine returned by Chang’e-6

  • Si-Zhang Sheng,
  • Shui-Jiong Wang,
  • Qiu-Li Li,
  • Shitou Wu,
  • Hao Wang,
  • Jun-Xiang Hua,
  • Zhenyu Chen,
  • Jin-Hua Hao,
  • Bo Zhang,
  • Yongsheng He,
  • Jian-Ming Zhu

摘要

The lunar mantle is important for unraveling the Moon’s formation and early differentiation processes. Here, we identify primitive lunar olivines in soils returned by the Chang’e-6 mission. These olivines have oxygen isotopic compositions plotting along the terrestrial fractionation line, and are characterized by high forsterite contents up to 95.6, and a broad range of nickel abundances from zero to 682 ppm. While the low-nickel (zero to 251 ppm), forsteritic olivines align with a Mg-suite origin, the most primitive, high-nickel olivines (337 to 682 ppm) have a different origin. They could be either the first olivine crystallized from the Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO) with an Earth-like initial composition, or crystallized from a hitherto unrecognized ultra-magnesian lava produced by extensive melting of the early LMO cumulate. The exposure of these mantle olivines was facilitated by their entrainment in ascending high-Mg lavas and conveyed to the surface at the South Pole-Aitken Basin.