Liquidus Equilibria of Some Primary Lunar and Terrestrial Melts in the Garnet Stability Field

Publication Status is "Submitted" Or "In Press: 
LDEO Publication: 
Publication Type: 
Year of Publication: 
1995
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Journal Title: 
Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta
Journal Date: 
Jun
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Tertiary Title: 
Volume: 
59
Issue: 
11
Pages: 
2375-2386
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Publisher: 
ISBN Number: 
0016-7037
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Edition: 
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Accession Number: 
ISI:A1995RE52200016
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Abstract: 

Melting experiments conducted at 28 and 30 kbar on synthetic starting materials with compositions appropriate to terrestrial (depleted) and lunar mantles (undifferentiated and cumulate) show that (1) low-degree melts of mantles with lherzolitic mineral assemblages (olivine + orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + garnet) will be (picritic) tholeiitic to transitional in character; (2) the melting equilibrium is ol + gar + cpx = opx + liq over a wide range of MgO/FeO; (3) the clinopyroxene coexisting with low-degree melts is low in CaO (similar to 7 wt%), as predicted by Bertka and Holloway (1993); (4) the solubility of aluminous components in pyroxene is much greater than at low pressure; and (5) the CaO concentration in clinopyroxenes coexisting with olivine and garnet in various runs ranges continuously from 7 to 16 wt%.The data place the following constraints on magma genesis: (I)polybaric fractional fusion of lunar and depleted terrestrial sources with olivine, two pyroxenes, and an aluminous phase will produce pooled melts that crystallize olivine, augite, and plagioclase before low-Ca pyroxene at low-pressure (i.e., tholeiites); (2) the absence of tholeiitic lavas or cumulates on the Moon indicates high-degree melts and/or no residual aluminous phase in lunar source regions; and (3) the low-Ca clinopyroxene on the high-pressure Iherzolite solidus is a super-critical clinopyroxene that appears on the anhydrous lherzolite solidus with increasing pressure when the ol + pig + aug liquidus boundary curve develops a critical end point. This critical end point terminates the high-Al2O3 end of the ol + pig + aug liquidus curve. As the critical end point migrates to the Opx-Wojoin, it progressively eliminates the ol + pig + aug liquidus curve, which disappears entirely by about 20 kbar.

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Re522Times Cited:48Cited References Count:46

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