ALBERT

Description: Most models of calcium aluminum-rich inclusions (CAI) have focused on early stages of formation by equilibrium crystallization of a homogeneous liquid. Less is known about the subsolidus cooling history of CAI. Chemical and isotopic heterogeneties on a scale of tens to hundreds of micrometers (e.g. MacPherson et al. (1989) and Podosek, et al. (1991)) suggest fairly rapid cooling with a minimum of subsolidus diffusion. However, transmission electron microscopy indicates that solid state diffusion may have been an important process at a smaller scale (Barber et al. 1984). If so, chemical evidence for diffusion could provide constraints on cooling times and temperatures. With this in mind, we have begun an investigation of the Ti distribution in spinels from two type B1 CAI from Allende to determine if post-crystallization diffusion was a significant process. The type B1 CAIs, 3529Z and 5241 have been described by Podosek et al. (1991) and by El Goresy et al. (1985) and MacPherson et al. (1989). We have analyzed spinels in these inclusions using the electron microprobe. These spinels are generally euhedral, range in size from less than 10 to 15 micron and are poikilitically enclosed by millimeter-sized pyroxene, melilite, and anorthite. Analyses were obtained from both the mantles and cores of the inclusions. Compositions of pyroxene in the vicinity of individual spinel grains were obtained by analyzing at least two points on opposite sides of the spinel and averaging the compositions. The pyroxene analyses were obtained within 15 microns of the spinel-pyroxene interface. No compositional gradients were observed within single spinel crystals. Ti concentrations in spinels included within pyroxene, melilite, and anorthite are presented.

Description: Lunar breccia 12013 is one of the few rocks for which isotopic evidence has been interpreted as indicating a 4.5-AE age, and it is the only lunar rock which contains abundant granitic material that may date back to the initial lunar differentiation. An investigation of 12013 conducted by Quick et al. (1981) has led to the conclusion that 12013 is an extremely complex mixture of impact-generated melt and clastic components of uncertain affinities. It was found that the granitic component in 12013 need not be any older than 4.16-4.17 AE. In the present study a model is presented for the Rb-Sr evolution of 12013 which explains the isotopic data without resorting to a 4.5-AE age for any component. Attention is given to petrographic constraints, isotopic investigations, and an evaluation of the Rb-Sr isotopic data. It is concluded that lunar rock 12013 is an extremely complex polymict breccia in which the Rb-Sr isotopic systematics have been greatly influenced by mixing during breccia formation and by subsequent reequilibration.

Description: Sample 12013 is extremely rich in incompatible elements (K, P, U, Th, Pb, Ba, Rb, Zr, Nb, and rare earths) relative to other lunar samples, and it contains abundant granitic material composed of silica minerals and K-feldspar. The present investigation provides detailed petrologic and mineralogic descriptions of the rock and a discussion of its genesis and history. The sample is made up of two lithologies, including a mottled gray and white lithology, and a black lithology. A detailed petrology of the gray breccia is presented, taking into account lithic clasts, mineral clasts, deformation textures in clasts, the matrix, and felsite. A detailed petrology of the black breccia is also provided. Attention is given to a model for the formation of the breccia, an evaluation of the possible genetic relationships between the various components, and some constraints on the nature of the source area.

Description: The lunar sample 12013, a complex mixture of gray breccia and black breccia, is described. The gray breccia consists of mostly basaltic and gabbroic lithic clasts as well as plagioclase and pyroxene mineral clasts set in a matrix of smaller clasts and a felsite of granitic composition, while the black breccia is comprised of mostly mineral clasts, some lithic clasts, and felsite blebs enclosed in an aphanitic groundmass of basaltic composition. Textural relationships indicate that the felsite and the black breccia groundmass crystallized from melts which coexisted prior to the final lithification of 12013 but failed to mix. Both the felsite and the black breccia groundmass have extreme enrichments of incompatible elements. The critical feature of their compositions is a 'splitting up' of incompatible element associations so that the highest REE and P concentrations are in the black breccia groundmass, and the highest K, Ba, and Rb concentrations are in the felsite.

Description: 66075 is a coherent, light matrix breccia with a seriate fabric and is composed of large lithic, mineral and glass clasts in a matrix of lithic, mineral and glass fragments. The lithic clasts are ANT-suite rocks and a texturally diverse suite of impact-generated melt-rocks. The mineral fragments in the matrix and the mineral clasts are mostly plagioclase with subordinate amounts of pyroxene and olivine. The mineral compositions and/or bulk compositions of most of the components of the breccia, as well as the U-Pb isotopic systematics, are compatible with an origin involving impact-melting and fragmentation of an ANT-suite protolith. The major element composition of the breccia matrix can be successfully modeled in terms of mixing the observed clast types. Previously suggested components such as 'dunite' and 'KREEP' are absent or occur in very low abundance.