Description
The lunar magma ocean (LMO) was unlike any terrestrial magma body in scale, and therefore physically behaves differently. Crystals were extant over the entire depth range of the magma ocean, allowing the LMO to differentiate as a single coherent body. The first phase to solidify was likely olivine, followed by pyroxene (Fig. 1). Through crystal-liquid differentiation the residual liquid became enriched in incompatible elements (Fe, Ti, Al, and REEs). After ~70% crystallization, incompatible elements (Fe, Ti, and Al) were incorporated into feldspar and eventually apatite. The incompatible elements that do not form major phases are concentrated in the residual liquid (termed KREEP or potassium – rare earth element – phosphate enriched), which represents the final ~1% of the LMO. Trace element studies of the LMO indicate that its fO2 at the time of core formation was approximately 2 log units below the iron-wüstite buffer.
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Baker, E. (2023). Crystallization of the Lunar Magma Ocean. In: Cudnik, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lunar Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14541-9_38
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