The composition of the Earth

The composition of the primitive mantle derived here shows that Earth was assembled from material that shows many of the same chemical fractionation processes as chondritic meteorites. These processes occurred at the initial stage of the solar system formation, under conditions thought to be present in the solar nebula. But the stable isotope record excludes chondritic meteorites as the ‘building blocks’ of Earth. Meteorites formed in local environments separated from that part of the inner solar system where much of the material forming the terrestrial planets was sourced.

https://booksite.elsevier.com/brochures/treatiseongeochemistry/contents/sample2.pdf

Cosmochemical Estimates of Mantle Composition

Isotopic evidence for a terminal lunar cataclysm

Chemical composition and origin of the earth's primitive mantle

The current state of understanding of the lunar interior is the sum of nearly four decades of work and a range of exploration programs spanning that same time period. Missions of the 1960s including the Rangers, Surveyors, and Lunar Orbiters, as well as Earth-based telescopic studies, laid the groundwork for the Apollo program and provided a basic understanding of the surface, its stratigraphy, and chronology. Through a combination of remote sensing, surface exploration, and sample return, the Apollo missions provided a general picture of the lunar interior and spawned the concept of the lunar magma ocean. In particular, the discovery of anorthite clasts in the returned samples led to the view that a large portion of the Moon was initially molten, and that crystallization of this magma ocean gave rise to mafic cumulates that make up the mantle, and plagioclase flotation cumulates that make up the crust (Smith et al. 1970; Wood et al. 1970). This model is now generally accepted and is the framework that unifies our knowledge of the structure and composition of the Moon. The intention of this chapter is to review the major advances that have been made over the past decade regarding the constitution of the Moon’s interior. Much of this new knowledge is a direct result of data acquired from the successful Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions, as well as the analysis of new lunar meteorites. As will be seen, results from these studies have led to many fundamental amendments to the magma ocean model.

Much of what we know from sample analyses has been previously summarized elsewhere, and only their most important aspects will be discussed in this chapter. The reader is referred to the relevant chapters in the books Basaltic Volcanism on the Terrestrial Planets (Basaltic Volcanism Study Project 1981), The …

The Constitution and Structure of the Lunar Interior

Chemical fractionations in meteorites. V - Volatile and siderophile elements in achondrites and ocean ridge basalts.

The simultaneous determination of 20 trace elements in terrestrial, lunar and meteoritic material by radiochemical neutron activation analysis

Apollo 11 lunar material trace elements, examining chemical processes during and after formation and meteoritic matter influx rate

Trace elements in Apollo 11 lunar rocks - Implications for meteorite influx and origin of moon

Lunar soil and type C breccias are enriched 3-to 100-fold in Ir, Au, Zn, Cd, Ag, Br, Bi, and Tl, relative to type A, B rocks. Smaller enrichments were found for Co, Cu, Ga, Pd, Rb, and Cs. The solar wind at present intensity can account for only 3 percent of this enrichment; an upper limit to the average proton flux during the last 4.5 x 109 years thus is 8 x 109 cm-2 yr-1. The remaining enrichment seems to be due to a 1.5 to 2 percent admixture of carbonaceous-chondritelike material, corresponding to an average influx rate of meteoritic and cometary matter of 2.9 x 10-9 g cm-2 yr-1 at Tranquility Base. This is about one-quarter the terrestrial rate. Type A, B rocks are depleted 10-to 100-fold in Ag, Au, Zn, Cd, In, Tl, and Bi, relative to terrestrial basalts. This suggests loss by high-temperature volatilization, before or after accretion of the moon. Positron activities due mainly to 22Na and 26Al range from 90 to 220 β+ min-1 kg-1 in five small rocks or fragments (9 to 29 g). The higher activities presumably indicate surface locations. Th and U contents generally agree with those found by the preliminary examination team.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/167/3918/490.full.pdf

Trace elements and radioactivity in lunar rocks: implications for meteorite infall, solar-wind flux, and formation conditions of moon.

Lunar rock volatile and siderophile elements, comparing with terrestrial and meteoritic basalts

Volatile and siderophile elements in lunar rocks: Comparison with terrestrial and meteoritic basalts

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