Experimental petrology of ancient lunar mare basalt Asuka-881757: Spinel crystallization as a petrologic indicator

The paucity of titanian chromites in lunar-meteorite basalt Asuka (A)-881757 is unusual compared to the general occurrence of co-existing chromites and ulvoespinels in the Apollo and Luna mare basalts. The unique spinel crystallization of A-881757 is expected to hold a key to elucidate the crystallization and cooling episodes of the basalt. In this study, we investigated the possible reason for the missing chromite by conducting isothermal and cooling experiments on the bulk-rock composition of A-881757 and discuss the petrogenesis of the ancient low-Ti mare basalt in light of spinel crystallization. A series of isothermal experiments showed the A-881757 basalt magma is not saturated with chromite under the expected lunar oxygen fugacity condition (IW similar to IW-1). A peritectic reaction among chromite, melt, and pyroxene is present for A-881757 basalt magma under the more oxidized condition which is one or two log unit higher than the lunar condition. The cooling experiment successfully reproduced the chromian ulvoespinels with similar compositions to those in A-881757. The result of the cooling experiments further implies that ulvoespinels solely crystallized from highly-fractionated interstitial melts in the late crystallization stage. The disparity in the crystallization of the liquidus chromite between the low-Ti and very low-Ti basalts might reflect the difference of bulk Cr sub(2)O sub(3) concentration. The low liquidus temperature and the paucity of the liquidus olivine in A-881757 infer that the A-881757 basalt represents a liquid derived from near-surface fractionation processes. Chromites might possibly have been present during that near-surface fractionation episode prior to the eruption of the magma.