Scholarlink

<p>The cause of mare asymmetry between the lunar nearside and farside remains a long-lasting conundrum. Due to scarcity of directly sourced deep samples, the formation mechanism of this phenomenon has not been well constrained. Here we characterized a class of rare impact glass beads with extremely high TiO<sub>2</sub> (16–25 wt%) and FeO (25–35 wt%) in the Chang’e-5 regolith. Petrological modeling indicates that the precursor rock of these glass beads cannot be formed through normal magmatic evolution, but rather has a deeper mantle origin. Phase diagram calculations show that the precursor rock has a typical mineral assemblage similar to ilmenite-bearing cumulates. Based on different residual anorthite proportions, the restored Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO) original crystalline mineral assemblage is predicted to contain ~15–20 vol% ilmenite, significantly higher than the average predicted levels. Therefore, the nearside ilmenite-bearing cumulates may have higher ilmenite abundance than farside, causing increased partial melting and more abundant volcanism.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Elevated ilmenite in lunar nearside cumulates revealed by extremely high-Ti glass beads augmented large-scale volcanism

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月14日

查看全文
  • Ziqing Li,
  • Bo Zhang,
  • Yuqi Qian,
  • James W. Head,
  • Tao Long,
  • Xiaochao Che

摘要

The cause of mare asymmetry between the lunar nearside and farside remains a long-lasting conundrum. Due to scarcity of directly sourced deep samples, the formation mechanism of this phenomenon has not been well constrained. Here we characterized a class of rare impact glass beads with extremely high TiO2 (16–25 wt%) and FeO (25–35 wt%) in the Chang’e-5 regolith. Petrological modeling indicates that the precursor rock of these glass beads cannot be formed through normal magmatic evolution, but rather has a deeper mantle origin. Phase diagram calculations show that the precursor rock has a typical mineral assemblage similar to ilmenite-bearing cumulates. Based on different residual anorthite proportions, the restored Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO) original crystalline mineral assemblage is predicted to contain ~15–20 vol% ilmenite, significantly higher than the average predicted levels. Therefore, the nearside ilmenite-bearing cumulates may have higher ilmenite abundance than farside, causing increased partial melting and more abundant volcanism.