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At least 937 records · Page 52

Luna 24 - Opaque mineral chemistry of gabbroic and basaltic fragments from Mare Crisium

Spinels and ilmenites are relatively sparse in the Luna 24 gabbro and basalts. Spinel compositions show some affinities to those of spinels in Apollo 12, Apollo 14 and Luna 16 basalts; a characteristic feature is high Al2O3, reaching a maximum of 19.8 wt%. A comparison of spinels in the Luna 24 gabbro with those in other deep-seated lunar intrusive rocks shows a characteristic trend for Fe/Mg. This trend is systematic from gabbro to anorthosite to troctolite and is interpreted to be P-T dependent. Compositions of spinels in the gabbro fall within the Cr/Al trend defined by the spinels of the basalts, but form a Fe/Mg trend parallel to that of the basalts; this relationship suggests that both the gabbro and the basalts are derived from a closely similar source region, with the basalts originating at a slightly greater depth than the gabbro. The spinels in both rock types are considered to have formed at high crustal levels, at low pressures. The Luna 24 data suggest that the compositional discontinuities which exist between chromian spinels and titanian spinels in a large proportion of mare basalts are the result of nucleation of chromian spinels at high crustal levels prior to eruption, and of titanian spinels during melt crystallization at the lunar surface.

Haggerty, S. E.↗

Petrology of Apollo 15 black-and-white rocks 15445 and 15455 - Fragments of the Imbrium impact melt sheet

The paper describes two macroscopically similar black-and-white rocks, 15445 and 15455, which were collected from the rim of Spur Crater on the Apennine Front. The two Apollo 15 rocks are very similar in chemistry and clast population, but the matrix of 15455 is finer grained than that of 15445. The 15445 sample contains a lithic clast assemblage of plutonic/metamorphic spinel troctolite, troctolite, norite, and anorthosite, and its fine-grained vesicular black coherent matrix consists of a melt-bonded aggregate of small mineral clasts which are mainly olivine, plagioclase, and pink spinel. The two rocks are distinct from any other large samples from the Apollo 15 site. It is suggested that the rocks are samples of an impact melt sheet which forms a bedrock unit of the Apennine Front, and that this melt sheet did not form in a local small-scale event but was produced during the Imbrium impact event.

Ryder, G.↗

Survey of lunar plutonic and granulitic lithic fragments

A catalog of lunar plutonic rocks and granulitic impactites belonging to the ANT suite has been compiled. The coarser-grained, plutonic rocks in the compilation are probably pristine; they belong to two groups, Mg-rich plutonic rocks and anorthosites, with a preponderance of the latter type. The granulitic impactites, however, have bulk and mineral compositions that fall between the two groups defined by the pristine nonmare samples of Warren and Wasson (1977). Thus the granulitic impactites may have originated by metamorphism of mixed impactites in early breccia sheets. The catalog, representative of the lunar crust before the end of heavy bombardment, suggests a crust with over 78 vol. % plagioclase and about equal proportions of material with noritic and troctolitic affinity.

Bickel, C. E.↗

Fragmentation in a rotating protostar - A comparison of two three-dimensional computer codes

The collapse of an isothermal protostellar cloud with pressure, gravity, and rotation included is followed with two independent computer codes. For the initial condition, a nonaxisymmetric perturbation of mode m = 2 and 50% amplitude is introduced into a cloud of 1 solar mass with a mean density of 1.44 x 10 to the -17g/cu cm and a uniform angular velocity of 1.6 x 10 to the -12 rad/sec. The collapse is followed through an increase in density of over four orders of magnitude to the point where a binary protostar forms. The agreement between the results of the two calculations is good.

Boss, A. P.↗

An experimental study of the thermal history of fragment-laden 'basalt' 77115

Phase equilibrium and dynamic crystallization experiments using a synthetic analog of the 77115 matrix composition restrict interpretations of the thermal history of the lunar sample. Rapid early cooling (10-25 G/hr) of melt containing a large number of a nuclei and slow late stage cooling (less than 7 C/hr) are required to crystallize the textures and mineralogy of the 77115 matrix. This result is in agreement with that predicated by the nature and extent of diffusive cation exchange between various xenocrysts phases and the 77115 matrix.

Thornber, C. R.↗

A heuristic criterion for instability to fragmentation in rotating, interstellar clouds

A heuristic criterion, based on linear perturbation analysis, is applied to the initial growth of density perturbations in isothermal or adiabatic gas clouds, with initially uniform density and uniform rotation. The heuristic criterion is shown to be consistent with the available results from numerical calculations of cloud collapse. The criterion predicts that perturbations varying as cos(m-phi) will be most likely to grow when m is small, unless the cloud is nearly pressureless.

Boss, A. P.↗