Geological characteristics and model ages of Marius Hills on the Moon

Abstract

Marius Hills is a volcanic plateau on the nearside of the Moon. It is of great interest for its high concentration of volcanic features, including domes, cones, ridges, and rilles. However, the morphological and chronological characteristics of this plateau were not well studied due to the low resolution of early mission data. This study describes the detailed morphology of the volcanic features using the latest high spatial resolution images of the Terrain Camera (TC) onboard Selene-1 (10 m/pix) and Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) (0.5 m/pix). We report here some new structures such as skylights and remnants of lava tubes. We have divided spectrally homogenous areas with Clementine UVVIS data and did crater size frequency distribution (CSFD) measurements with Lunar Orbiter (LO) IV and TC images in every spectral unit. We first report absolute model ages of 1.10 Ga for Marius basalt 1, 1.49 Ga for Flamsteed basalt, and 1.46 Ga for Schiaparelli Basalt. In addition, we have identified several younger lava events: they are Marius basalt 2 (814 Ma), medium to low titanium basalt (949 Ma), and undifferentiated medium titanium basalt (687 Ma). Finally, we propose a mantle plume scenario for the formation of Marius Hills, which could solve the inconsistency of previous models. KEY WORDS: the Moon, Marius Hills, absolute model age, volcanic feature, mantle plume.

Geological Characteristics of Von Kármán Crater, Northwestern South Pole‐Aitken Basin: Chang'E‐4 Landing Site Region

“…In order to distinguish geological units of different composition, age, or texture, a RGB composite mosaic of MI data was built (R = 750 nm/415 nm, G = 950 nm/750 nm, B = 415 nm/750 nm (e.g., Huang et al, ; Weitz & Head, ). Observed variations in this RGB composite that mimic the Clementine false color ratio are commonly due to variations of the titanium and iron contents and the maturity of the surface materials (Pieters et al, ).…”

Generation, ascent and eruption of magma on the Moon: New insights into source depths, magma supply, intrusions and effusive/explosive eruptions (Part 2: Predicted emplacement processes and observations)

“…McCauley ( variations Heather et al, 2003;Besse et al, 2011;Huang et al, 2011). More recently, Lawrence et al (2013) …”

Large shield volcanoes on the Moon

“…Most recently, Huang et al . [] propose very young ages for the surface lavas of the Marius Hills, ranging from 0.8 to 1.1 Ga.…”

“…However, the identification of large shield volcanoes indicates that some significant fraction of erupted magma on the Moon has been emplaced via the mechanism of low volume, prolonged shield‐building eruptions. The ages of the mare surfaces associated with these features [ Hiesinger et al ., ; ] range over several hundred million years during the era of mare volcanism (Table ), from as old as 3.8 Ga for the lavas of the Aristarchus shield [ Zisk et al ., ] to flows possibly as young as ~1 Ga on the Marius Hills shield [ Huang et al ., ]. Thus, shield building was a continuous process \during the principal epoch of mare volcanism on the Moon (3.9–3.0 Ga) [ BVSP , ; Wilhelms , ] and possibly extending well beyond it, up to as recently as 1 Ga ago [ Huang et al ., ].…”