The global distribution of pure anorthosite on the Moon.
It has been thought that the lunar highland crust was formed by the crystallization and floatation of plagioclase from a global magma ocean, although the actual generation mechanisms are still debated. The composition of the lunar highland crust is therefore important for understanding the formation of such a magma ocean and the subsequent evolution of the Moon. The Multiband Imager on the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) has a high spatial resolution of optimized spectral coverage, which should allow a clear view of the composition of the lunar crust. Here we report the global distribution of rocks of high plagioclase abundance (approaching 100 vol.%), using an unambiguous plagioclase absorption band recorded by the SELENE Multiband Imager. If the upper crust indeed consists of nearly 100 vol.% plagioclase, this is significantly higher than previous estimates of 82-92 vol.% (refs 2, 6, 7), providing a valuable constraint on models of lunar magma ocean evolution.
Ohtake
Makiko
M
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshino-dai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan.
Matsunaga
Tsuneo
T
Haruyama
Junichi
J
Yokota
Yasuhiro
Y
Morota
Tomokatsu
T
Honda
Chikatoshi
C
Ogawa
Yoshiko
Y
Torii
Masaya
M
Miyamoto
Hideaki
H
Arai
Tomoko
T
Hirata
Naru
N
Iwasaki
Akira
A
Nakamura
Ryosuke
R
Hiroi
Takahiro
T
Sugihara
Takamitsu
T
Takeda
Hiroshi
H
Otake
Hisashi
H
Pieters
Carle M
CM
Saiki
Kazuto
K
Kitazato
Kohei
K
Abe
Masanao
M
Asada
Noriaki
N
Demura
Hirohide
H
Yamaguchi
Yasushi
Y
Sasaki
Sho
S
Kodama
Shinsuke
S
Terazono
Junya
J
Shirao
Motomaro
M
Yamaji
Atsushi
A
Minami
Shigeyuki
S
Akiyama
Hiroaki
H
Josset
Jean-Luc
JL