Volcanism in Mare Fecunditatis and Mare Crisium: Ar-Ar age studies: Ar-Ar age studies

Vera A. Fernandes; Ray Burgess

doi:10.1016/j.gca.2005.05.017

Volcanism in Mare Fecunditatis and Mare Crisium: Ar-Ar age studies: Ar-Ar age studies

Vera A. Fernandes^*, Ray Burgess

^*Corresponding author for this work

Earth and Environmental Sciences - Academic & Research

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The laser ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating technique has been applied to five Luna 16 basalt fragments and one impact glass, and nine Luna 24 basalt fragments and one breccia. The textures of these basalts are fine-grained ophitic and coarse-grained basalts. The samples contain high levels of solar and lunar atmospheric argon acquired during their residence on the lunar surface. These trapped argon components are predominantly released at low temperature steps and can be distinguished from radiogenic and cosmogenic released at intermediate and high temperature steps. The apparent ages obtained for Luna 16 samples span a narrow range of 3.29 to 3.38 Ga. A young age of 0.988 Ga was obtained for a basaltic impact glass indicating the age of an impact event in the vicinity of Luna 16 landing site. The ages obtained for Luna 24 samples suggest the existence of at least three periods of volcanism occurring over a protracted interval of between 3.45 and 2.52 Ga. The long period of volcanism suggested for the Mare Crisium was likely due to a combination of geophysical and geochemical features in the surrounding and underlying areas of the Crisium Basin. Attempts at dating three Luna 20 samples were inconclusive due to their high trapped argon contents.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4919-4934
Number of pages	16
Journal	Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Volume	69
Issue number	20
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2005.05.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2005.05.017
Publication status	Published - 15 Oct 2005

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@article{76222ef5fc474c76b88d924b33d3df24,

title = "Volcanism in Mare Fecunditatis and Mare Crisium: Ar-Ar age studies: Ar-Ar age studies",

abstract = "The laser 40Ar/39Ar dating technique has been applied to five Luna 16 basalt fragments and one impact glass, and nine Luna 24 basalt fragments and one breccia. The textures of these basalts are fine-grained ophitic and coarse-grained basalts. The samples contain high levels of solar and lunar atmospheric argon acquired during their residence on the lunar surface. These trapped argon components are predominantly released at low temperature steps and can be distinguished from radiogenic and cosmogenic released at intermediate and high temperature steps. The apparent ages obtained for Luna 16 samples span a narrow range of 3.29 to 3.38 Ga. A young age of 0.988 Ga was obtained for a basaltic impact glass indicating the age of an impact event in the vicinity of Luna 16 landing site. The ages obtained for Luna 24 samples suggest the existence of at least three periods of volcanism occurring over a protracted interval of between 3.45 and 2.52 Ga. The long period of volcanism suggested for the Mare Crisium was likely due to a combination of geophysical and geochemical features in the surrounding and underlying areas of the Crisium Basin. Attempts at dating three Luna 20 samples were inconclusive due to their high trapped argon contents.",

author = "Fernandes, {Vera A.} and Ray Burgess",

note = "Funding Information: We thank NASA for generously providing the Luna samples for this study. Dave Blagburn and Bev Clementson are thanked for technical support in the noble gas laboratory. We are grateful for the assistance of Steve Caldwell, Dave Plant and Chris Hayward during SEM and EMPA. We appreciate reviews from E. K. Jessberger and four anonymous reviewers which led to important for improvements of the manuscript. We also thank Mark Wieczorek for his valuable comments. Financial support was provided by an EEC-TMR fellowship and by a partial scholarship by Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e a Tecnologia of Portugal to VAF. ",

year = "2005",

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doi = "10.1016/j.gca.2005.05.017",

language = "English",

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journal = "Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta",

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T1 - Volcanism in Mare Fecunditatis and Mare Crisium: Ar-Ar age studies

T2 - Ar-Ar age studies

AU - Fernandes, Vera A.

AU - Burgess, Ray

N1 - Funding Information: We thank NASA for generously providing the Luna samples for this study. Dave Blagburn and Bev Clementson are thanked for technical support in the noble gas laboratory. We are grateful for the assistance of Steve Caldwell, Dave Plant and Chris Hayward during SEM and EMPA. We appreciate reviews from E. K. Jessberger and four anonymous reviewers which led to important for improvements of the manuscript. We also thank Mark Wieczorek for his valuable comments. Financial support was provided by an EEC-TMR fellowship and by a partial scholarship by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia of Portugal to VAF.

PY - 2005/10/15

Y1 - 2005/10/15

N2 - The laser 40Ar/39Ar dating technique has been applied to five Luna 16 basalt fragments and one impact glass, and nine Luna 24 basalt fragments and one breccia. The textures of these basalts are fine-grained ophitic and coarse-grained basalts. The samples contain high levels of solar and lunar atmospheric argon acquired during their residence on the lunar surface. These trapped argon components are predominantly released at low temperature steps and can be distinguished from radiogenic and cosmogenic released at intermediate and high temperature steps. The apparent ages obtained for Luna 16 samples span a narrow range of 3.29 to 3.38 Ga. A young age of 0.988 Ga was obtained for a basaltic impact glass indicating the age of an impact event in the vicinity of Luna 16 landing site. The ages obtained for Luna 24 samples suggest the existence of at least three periods of volcanism occurring over a protracted interval of between 3.45 and 2.52 Ga. The long period of volcanism suggested for the Mare Crisium was likely due to a combination of geophysical and geochemical features in the surrounding and underlying areas of the Crisium Basin. Attempts at dating three Luna 20 samples were inconclusive due to their high trapped argon contents.

AB - The laser 40Ar/39Ar dating technique has been applied to five Luna 16 basalt fragments and one impact glass, and nine Luna 24 basalt fragments and one breccia. The textures of these basalts are fine-grained ophitic and coarse-grained basalts. The samples contain high levels of solar and lunar atmospheric argon acquired during their residence on the lunar surface. These trapped argon components are predominantly released at low temperature steps and can be distinguished from radiogenic and cosmogenic released at intermediate and high temperature steps. The apparent ages obtained for Luna 16 samples span a narrow range of 3.29 to 3.38 Ga. A young age of 0.988 Ga was obtained for a basaltic impact glass indicating the age of an impact event in the vicinity of Luna 16 landing site. The ages obtained for Luna 24 samples suggest the existence of at least three periods of volcanism occurring over a protracted interval of between 3.45 and 2.52 Ga. The long period of volcanism suggested for the Mare Crisium was likely due to a combination of geophysical and geochemical features in the surrounding and underlying areas of the Crisium Basin. Attempts at dating three Luna 20 samples were inconclusive due to their high trapped argon contents.

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DO - 10.1016/j.gca.2005.05.017

M3 - Article

SN - 0016-7037

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JO - Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

JF - Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

IS - 20

ER -

Volcanism in Mare Fecunditatis and Mare Crisium: Ar-Ar age studies: Ar-Ar age studies

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