Abstract-If Vesta is the parent body of the howardite, eucrite, and diogenite (HED) meteorites, then geochemical and petrologic constraints for the meteorites may be used in conjunction with astronomical constraints for the size and mass of Vesta to (1) determine the size of a possible metal core in Vesta and (2) model the igneous differentiation and internal structure of Vesta.The density of Vesta and petrologic models for HED meteorites together suggest that the amount of metal in the parent body is <25 mass%, with a best estimate of -5%, assuming no porosity. For a porosity of up to 5% in the silicate fraction of the asteroid, the permissible metal content is <30%. These results suggest that any metal core in the HED parent body and Vesta is not unusually large.A variety of geochemical and other data for HED meteorites are consistent with the idea that they originated in a magma ocean. It appears that diogenites formed by crystal accumulation in a magma ocean cumulate pile and that most noncumulate eucrites (excepting such eucrites as Bouvante and Stannem) formed by subsequent crystallization of the residual melts. Modelling results suggest that the HED parent body is enriched in rare earth elements by a factor of -2.5-3.5 relative to CI-chondrites and that it has approximately chondritic Mg/Si and AVSc ratios. Stokes settling calculations for a Vesta-wide, nonturbulent magma ocean suggest that early-crystallizing magnesian olivine, orthopyroxene, and pigeonite would have settled relatively quickly, permitting fractional crystallization to occur, but that later-crystallizing phases would have settled (or floated) an order of magnitude more slowly, allowing, instead, a closer approach to equilibrium crystallization for the more evolved (eucritic) melts. This would have inhibited the formation of a plagioclase-flotation crust on Vesta.Plausible models for the interior of Vesta, which are consistent with the data for HED meteorites and Vesta, include a metal core ( 4 3 0 km radius), an olivine-rich mantle (-65-220 km thick), a lower crustal unit (-1243 km thick) composed of pyroxenite, from which diogenites were derived, and an upper crustal unit (-23-42 km thick), from which eucrites originated. The present shape of Vesta (with -60 km difference in the maximum and minimum radius) suggests that all of the crustal materials, and possibly some of the underlying olivine from the mantle, could have been locally excavated or exposed by impact cratering.
We have determined the abundances of 16O, 17O, and 18O in 31 lunar samples from Apollo missions 11, 12, 15, 16, and 17 using a high-precision laser fluorination technique. All oxygen isotope compositions plot within +/-0.016 per mil (2 standard deviations) on a single mass-dependent fractionation line that is identical to the terrestrial fractionation line within uncertainties. This observation is consistent with the Giant Impact model, provided that the proto-Earth and the smaller impactor planet (named Theia) formed from an identical mix of components. The similarity between the proto-Earth and Theia is consistent with formation at about the same heliocentric distance. The three oxygen isotopes (delta17O) provide no evidence that isotopic heterogeneity on the Moon was created by lunar impacts.
Abstract-New data are reported from five previously unanalyzed Apollo 12 mare basalts that are incorporated into an evaluation of previous petrogenetic modelsand classification schemes for these basalts. This paper proposes a classification for Apollo 12 mare basalts on the basis of whole-rock Mg# [molar 100·(MgI(Mg+Fe»] and RbiSr ratio (analyzed by isotope dilution), whereby the ilmenite,.olivine, and pigeonite basalt groups are readily distinguished from each other. Scrutiny ofthe Apollo 12 feldspathic "suite" demonstrates thl¢ two of the three basalts previously assigned to this group (12031, 12038, 12072) can be reclassified: 12031 is a plagioclase-rich pigeonite basah (Nyquist et al., 1979); and 12072 is an olivine basalt, Only basah 12038 stands out as a unique sample (Nyquist et al., 1981) to the Apollo 12 site, but whether this represents a single sample from another flow at the Apollo 12 site or is exotic to this site is equivocal.The question of whether the olivine and pigeonite basalt suites are co-magmatic is addressed by incompatible trace-elernent chemistry: the trends defined by these two suites when Co/Sm andSmIEu ratios are plotted against RblSr ratio demonstrate that these two basaltic types cannot be co-magmatic. Crystal fractionation/accumulation paths have been calculated and show that neither the pigeonite, olivine, or ilmenite basalts are related by this process. Each suite requires a distinct andseparate source region. This study also examines sample heterogeneity and the degree to which whole-rock analyses are representative, which is critical when petrogenetic interpretation is undertaken. Sample heterogeneity has been investigated petrographically (inhomogeneous mineral distribution) with consideration of duplicate analyses, and whether a specific sample (using average data) plots consistently upon a fractionation trend when a number of different compositional parameters are considered. Using these criteria, four basalts have been identified where reported analyses are not representative ofthe whole-rock composition: 12005, an ilmenite basalt; 12006 and 12036, olivine basalts; and 12031 previously classified as a feldspathic basalt, but reclassified as part ofthepigeonite suite (Nyquist et al., 1979).
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