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The magmatic architecture and evolution of the Chang’e-5 lunar basalts

Nature Geoscience volume 16, pages 301–308 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The lunar basalt samples returned by the Chang’e-5 mission erupted about 2.0 billion years ago during the late period of the Moon’s secular cooling. The conditions of mantle melting in the source region and the migration of magma through the thick lithosphere that led to this relatively late lunar volcanism remain open questions. Here we combine quantitative textural analyses of Chang’e-5 basaltic clasts, diffusion chronometry, clinopyroxene geothermobarometers and crystallization simulations to establish a holistic picture of the dynamic magmatic–thermal evolution of these young lunar basalts. We find that the Chang’e-5 basalts originated from an olivine-bearing pyroxenite mantle source (10–13 kbar or 250 ± 50 km; 1,350 ± 50 °C), similar to Apollo 12 low-Ti basalts. We propose these magmas then ascended through the plumbing system and accumulated mainly at the top of the lithospheric mantle (~2–5 kbar or 40–100 km, 1,150 ± 50 °C), where they stalled at least several hundred days and evolved via high-degree fractional crystallization. Finally, the remaining evolved melts erupted rapidly onto the surface over several days. Our magmatic–thermal evolution model indicates abundant low-solidus pyroxenites in the mantle source with a slightly enhanced inventory of radioactive elements can explain the prolonged, but declining, lunar volcanism up to about 2 billion years ago and beyond.

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Fig. 1: The CSD and diffusion results for the CE-5 basalts.
Fig. 2: The backscattered electron (BSE) images and X-ray colour maps of Fe content and the corresponding Mg# profiles show different types of clinopyroxenes.
Fig. 3: The chemical compositions of clinopyroxene (Cpx) from the CE-5 basalts and their comparison with those of some representative Apollo basaltic samples.
Fig. 4: Pressure and temperature estimations and pMELTS modelling results.
Fig. 5: Schematic architecture model of the magma plumbing system for the young CE-5 basalts.

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Data availability

All data analysed or generated during this study are available in EarthChem Library at https://doi.org/10.26022/IEDA/112769, Science Data Bank at https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.o00009.00468 and Supplementary Tables. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The MATLAB code used for diffusion modelling and error calculation in this study can be obtained from the corresponding author B.L.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate all staff of the Chang’e-5 mission, and their great effort makes this work possible. We thank China National Space Administration (CNSA) for providing access to the returned sample (CE5C0400) and China University of Geoscience, Wuhan for technical support. This work was supported by the pre-research project on Civil Aerospace Technologies funded by CNSA to Z. W. (no. D020205). B.L. thanks the China Scholarship Council (no. 201906415001) and K. Cashman, J. Blundy and A. Rust for guiding volcanology research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

    Biji Luo, Zaicong Wang, Jiale Song, Yuqi Qian, Qi He, Yiheng Li, Long Xiao, Bixuan Huang, Bing Ruan, Yangxuan Hu, Fabing Pan, Chang Xu, Wenlong Liu, Keqing Zong, Jiawei Zhao, Wen Zhang, Zhaochu Hu, Zhenbing She, Xiang Wu & Hongfei Zhang

  2. Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    James W. Head

  3. Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université Paris Cité, CNRS, UMR 7154, Paris, France

    Frédéric Moynier

  4. Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Harry Becker

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Contributions

Z.W. applied the CE-5 samples from CNSA with the help of Q.H., X.W., K.Z., Z.H., L.X., W.Z. and Z.S., and B.L. and Z.W. designed this research. Q.H., Y.L., X.W. and J.Z. prepared the samples. B.L., B.R., J.S., B.H., Y.H., C.X., F.P. and W.L. carried out experiments. B.L. and Z.W. wrote the manuscript draft, Y.Q., J.W.H., F.M., L.X., H.B., H.Z. and L.X. revised the manuscript, and all authors participated in data interpretation.

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Correspondence to Biji Luo or Zaicong Wang.

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Nature Geoscience thanks Charles Shearer, Renaud Merle and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Tamara Goldin, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Some reprehensive backscattered electron (BSE) images of the Chang’E-5 basalt clasts in this study were used for CSD analyzed.

a–e, Microlites in groundmass. a. LS-5-28. b. Outline of plagioclase in LS-5-28. c. LS-1-142. d. LS-2-66. e. 26-710. f. Porphyritic, CE-2. Cpx, clinopyroxene; Pl, plagioclase; Ol, olivine; Ilm, ilmenite.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Representative textural and compositional zoning diagrams for different types of clinopyroxene.

Type I-a, microlites: a, d, 5-28-1A; Type I-b, larger phenocrysts: b, e, 26-2-01; and c f, 26-1-01; Type II, patchy zoning, g-j, 24-632-C; Type III-a, normal zoning: k, n, 11-2-C; l, o, 23-01; and m, p, 21-3B. Insert circles represent the crystallographic and traverse orientation projection that were measured by EBSD. α, β and γ are angles between measured profile and [100], [010] and [001] axes, respectively. The white bars represent 10 μm.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Chemical composition of clinopyroxene from the Chang’E-5 basaltic fragments.

a, Quadrilateral diagram of clinopyroxene (Cpx). The grey dots are all the original CPX analysis points (data are from this study and references12,13,14,19). The red dots are the relatively high Mg# analysis points and were used for the calculations of clinopyroxene-liquid thermobarometers. b, Histogram showing the distribution of the Mg# values of clinopyroxene. c, Rhodes diagram for the clinopyroxene. Cpx Mg# vs. Liquid Mg#. The composition of CE-5 B112 that equilibrium with most high Mg#-Cpx was used to represent the composition of the liquid. d, Observed Cpx components vs. Predicted Cpx components. The observed Cpx components are close to the predicted Cpx components, indicating that the calculation results are reliable. CaTs: calcium Tschermak, En: enstatite, Fs: ferrosilite, Di: diopside, Hd: hedenbergite.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 The relationship between greyscale and Mg# and CaO (wt. %) for clinopyroxene.

The results show that the greyscale is mainly controlled by Mg# values, rather than CaO contents.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 5 Diffusion coefficient and temperature calculations.

a, Diffusion coefficients DFe–Mg of clinopyroxene verses temperature (°C)36. b, pMELTs simulation results of Mg# values of clinopyroxene and temperatures at P = 0.001 kbar and P = 4 kbar, respectively. The average compositions of the CE-5 basaltic fragments (CE-5A)13 were used as starting material. The result show that the Mg# values of clinopyroxene have a good relationship with the temperature. Thus, the Mg# values of clinopyroxene can be used to estimate the crystallization temperature. Since most clinopyroxene with complex zoning formed in the deep magma reservoirs, we assume that it is most likely at a peak pressure of 4 kbar.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 6 pMELTs simulation results.

a, Experimental phase diagram for the Apollo-12 nearly primary low-Ti basaltic sample 1200240. b–d, The phase diagrams were simulated by pMELTs for the 12002, CE-5A, and 042GP-002, respectively. The shaded circles in a, b, c and d represent the multiple-saturation points, which could indicate the potential minimum origin depth and residual minerals43. The grey lines in b are the experimental result for 1200240. The pMELTS simulation phase diagram for 12002 is very similar to that of the experimental result40, indicating that the pMELTS results are effective. The results suggest that the CE-5 basalts were saturated with olivine and pyroxene residual at deep source. e and f, pMELTS results for clinopyroxene Al2O3 or Na2O contents vs. pressures, respectively. CE-5A is the average composition of CE-5 basaltic fragments13. 042GP-002 is a relatively primitive basaltic fragment with higher Mg# (47) value13. Cpx, clinopyroxene; Pl, plagioclase; Ol, olivine; Ilm, ilmenite; Spl, spinel.

Source data

Extended Data Table 1 Summary of CSD slopes, intercepts, characteristic length (CL) and calculated residence time (τ) of plagioclase, ilmenite and clinopyroxene from the Chang’E-5 basaltic fragments
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Extended Data Table 2 Calculated residence times (days) obtained by modeling Fe-Mg diffusion in clinopyroxene from the Chang’E-5 basaltic fragments
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Extended Data Table 3 Major elements of some representative Chang’E-5 basaltic fragments and lunar soils and Apollo 12 basalt 12002
Full size table

Supplementary information

Supplementary Tables

Supplementary Tables 1–3.

Source data

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Source Data Extended Data Fig. 3

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Source Data Extended Data Fig. 4

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Source Data Extended Data Fig. 5

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Source Data Extended Data Fig. 6

Statistical source data.

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Luo, B., Wang, Z., Song, J. et al. The magmatic architecture and evolution of the Chang’e-5 lunar basalts. Nat. Geosci. 16, 301–308 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01146-x

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