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Effect of crustal porosity on lunar magma ocean solidification

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Abstract

The lunar ferroan anorthosites, formed by plagioclase flotation from the crystallization of the lunar magma ocean, have an age span of over ~ 200 Ma. However, previous thermal models predicted a much shorter time range. We propose that a much smaller thermal conductivity of anorthositic crust due to its high porosity may have delayed the solidification of the lunar magma ocean. Our thermal simulation results, using the thermal conductivity of porous lunar crust, show that crystallization of a 1000 km deep magma ocean could be prolonged to tens of millions of years, and up to 180 Ma under some extreme conditions. The porous crust alone can’t explain the large crustal age span, however. Other circumstances must be taken into consideration, such as a thick lunar soil.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Kiefer S. Walter for the discussion on the porosities of lunar samples. Dr. Linda Elkins-Tanton provided many useful suggestions and details of thermal modeling. Dr. Phonsie J. Hevey and Dr. Ian S. Sanders offered us insight into sintering process. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants Nos. 41773064, 41931077), the Strategic Priority Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDB41020300), Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS, the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDPB11), Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (Z181100002918003).

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  1. Center for Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China

    Mingming Zhang, Yingkui Xu & Xiongyao Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100040, China

    Mingming Zhang

  3. CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, Hefei, 230026, China

    Yingkui Xu & Xiongyao Li

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Zhang, M., Xu, Y. & Li, X. Effect of crustal porosity on lunar magma ocean solidification. Acta Geochim 40, 123–134 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-020-00449-9

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