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Possible mantle origin of olivine around lunar impact basins detected by SELENE

Nature Geoscience volume 3, pages 533–536 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

The composition, structure and evolution of the Moon’s mantle is poorly constrained. The mineral olivine, one of the main constituents of Earth’s mantle, has been identified by Earth-based telescopic observations at two craters on the near side of the Moon, Aristarchus and Copernicus1,2,3. Global reflectance spectra in five discrete spectral bands produced by the spacecraft Clementine4,5,6 suggested several possible olivine-bearing sites, but one of the candidate occurrences of olivine was later re-classified, on the basis of continuous reflectance spectra over the entire 1 μm band, as a mixture of plagioclase and pyroxene7. Here we present a global survey of the lunar surface using the Spectral Profiler onboard the lunar explorer SELENE/Kaguya7,8. We found many exposures of olivine on the Moon, located in concentric regions around the South Pole-Aitken, Imbrium and Moscoviense impact basins where the crust is relatively thin. We propose that these exposures of olivine can be attributed either to an excavation of the lunar mantle at the time of the impacts that formed the basins3, or to magnesium-rich pluton in the Moon’s lower crust. On the basis of radiative transfer modelling4,8,9,10, we suggest that at least some of the olivine detected near impact basins originates from upper mantle of the Moon.

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Figure 1: Global distribution of olivine-rich points on the Moon.
Figure 2: Local distribution of olivine-rich sites around various basins or maria.
Figure 3: Colour-composite image maps of olivine-rich sites D1 and E1 taken by the MI.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partly supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (20740249).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan

    Satoru Yamamoto, Tsuneo Matsunaga & Yasuhiro Yokota

  2. Information Technology Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 1-1-1 Umezato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan

    Ryosuke Nakamura

  3. ARC-Space/CAIST, The University of Aizu, Ikki-machi, Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima 965-8580, Japan

    Yoshiko Ogawa & Naru Hirata

  4. RISE project, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-12 Hoshigaoka, Mizusawa, Oshu, Iwate 023-0861, Japan

    Yoshiaki Ishihara

  5. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan

    Tomokatsu Morota, Makiko Ohtake & Junichi Haruyama

  6. Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA

    Takahiro Hiroi

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  1. Satoru Yamamoto
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Contributions

Data analyses were conducted by S.Y., R.N., T. Matsunaga, Y.O. and M.O. The manuscript was produced by significant contributions from S.Y., R.N. and T. Matsunaga. T.H. contributed to the assessments of spectral features in the survey programme. Y.I. contributed to the production of the base maps of Figs 1 and 2 and discussion on the crust thickness. All of the authors, including T. Morota, N.H., J.H. and Y.Y., discussed and provided significant comments on the results and the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Satoru Yamamoto.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Yamamoto, S., Nakamura, R., Matsunaga, T. et al. Possible mantle origin of olivine around lunar impact basins detected by SELENE. Nature Geosci 3, 533–536 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo897

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