LUNAR VOLATILE DEPLETION DUE TO INCOMPLETE ACCRETION WITHIN AN IMPACT-GENERATED DISK.

ABSTRACT: The Moon may have formed from an Earth-orbiting disk of vapor and melt produced by a giant impact.¹ The Moon and Earth's mantles have similar compositions. However, it is unclear why lunar samples are more depleted in volatile elements than terrestrial mantle rocks^2-3, given that an evaporative escape mechanism⁴ appears inconsistent with expected disk conditions.⁵ Dynamical models^6-7 suggest that the Moon initially accreted from the outermost disk, but later acquired up to 60% of its mass from melt originating from the inner disk. Here we combine dynamical, thermal and chemical models to show that volatile depletion in the Moon can be explained by preferential accretion of volatile-rich melt in the inner disk to the Earth, rather than

SUBMITTER: Canup RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6662721 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature