Rapid transition from primary to secondary crust building on the Moon explained by mantle overturn

Geochronology indicates a rapid transition (tens of Myrs) from primary to secondary crust building on the Moon. The processes responsible for initiating secondary magmatism, however, remain in debate. Here we test the hypothesis that the earliest secondary crust (Mg-suite) formed as a direct consequ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2023-08, Vol.14 (1), p.5002-5002, Article 5002
Main Authors: Prissel, Tabb C., Zhang, Nan, Jackson, Colin R. M., Li, Haoyuan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/445/209
704/445/210
704/445/431
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704/445/849
Age
Convection
Earth mantle
Energy sources
Geochronology
Geosciences (General)
Gravitational instability
Gravity
Humanities and Social Sciences
Ilmenite
Kreep
Lower mantle
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration
Magma
Melting
Meteors & meteorites
Moon
multidisciplinary
Petrogenesis
Pile driving
Potassium
Rare earth elements
Remote sensing
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Three dimensional models
Trace elements
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Summary:Geochronology indicates a rapid transition (tens of Myrs) from primary to secondary crust building on the Moon. The processes responsible for initiating secondary magmatism, however, remain in debate. Here we test the hypothesis that the earliest secondary crust (Mg-suite) formed as a direct consequence of density-driven mantle overturn, and advance 3D mantle convection models to quantify the resulting extent of lower mantle melting. Our modeling demonstrates that overturn of thin ilmenite-bearing cumulates ≤ 100 km triggers a rapid and short-lived episode of lower mantle melting which explains the key volume, geochronological, and spatial characteristics of early secondary crust building without contributions from other energy sources, namely KREEP (potassium, rare earth elements, phosphorus, radiogenic U, Th). Observations of globally distributed Mg-suite eliminate degree-1 overturn scenarios. We propose that gravitational instabilities in magma ocean cumulate piles are major driving forces for the onset of mantle convection and secondary crust building on differentiated bodies.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-40751-7