Volatile element depletion of the Moon—The roles of precursors, post-impact disk dynamics, and core formationOPEN ACCESS 

· by · in ,

K. Righter

Science Advances 23 Jan 2019:
Vol. 5, no. 1, eaau7658
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau7658

LINK (OPEN ACCESS)
PDF (OPEN ACCESS)

“The compositional and isotopic similarity of Earth’s primitive upper mantle (PUM) and the Moon supports the derivation of the Moon from proto-Earth, but the Moon’s inventory of volatile lithophile elements—Na, K, Rb, and Cs—is lower than Earth’s PUM by factors of 4 to 5. The abundances of 14 other volatile elements exhibit siderophile behavior [volatile siderophile elements (VSEs); i.e., P, As, Cu, Ag, Sb, Ga, Ge, Bi, Pb, Zn, Sn, Cd, In, and Tl] that can be used to evaluate whether the Moon was derived from proto-Earth and if core formation or volatility controlled their depletion. At lunar core formation conditions, As, Sb, Ag, Ge, Bi, and Sn are siderophile, whereas P, Cu, Ga, Pb, Zn, Cd, In, and Tl are weakly siderophile or lithophile. VSEs may help to discriminate between physical and chemical processes that formed the Moon such as low- versus high-energy impacts and gas-melt interactions.”

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. Lunar volatile depletion due to incomplete accretion within an impact-generated disk
  2. Highly siderophile element depletion in the Moon
  3. Isotopic evidence for the formation of the Moon in a canonical giant impactOPEN ACCESS 
  4. Calibrating volatile loss from the Moon using the U-Pb systemOPEN ACCESS 
  5. Extensive volatile loss during formation and differentiation of the Moon
  6. Isotopic evolution of the protoplanetary disk and the building blocks of Earth and the Moon
  7. Trace element volatility and the conditions of liquid-vapor separation in the proto-lunar disk
  8. Origin of volatile element depletion among carbonaceous chondrites
  9. Significant depletion of volatile elements in the mantle of asteroid Vesta due to core formation
  10. The selenium isotope composition of lunar rocks: Implications for the formation of the Moon and its volatile loss
Tags: , , ,