Lunar primitive mantle olivine returned by Chang'e-6.

Authors

Si-Zhang Sheng, Shui-Jiong Wang, Qiu-Li Li, Shitou Wu, Hao Wang, Jun-Xiang Hua, Zhenyu Chen, Jin-Hua Hao, Bo Zhang, Yongsheng He, Jian-Ming Zhu

Published in

Nature communications. Volume 16. Issue 1. Pages 3759. Apr 23, 2025. Epub Apr 23, 2025.

Abstract

The lunar mantle is important for unraveling the Moon's formation and early differentiation processes. Here, we identify primitive lunar olivines in soils returned by the Chang'e-6 mission. These olivines have oxygen isotopic compositions plotting along the terrestrial fractionation line, and are characterized by high forsterite contents up to 95.6, and a broad range of nickel abundances from zero to 682 ppm. While the low-nickel (zero to 251 ppm), forsteritic olivines align with a Mg-suite origin, the most primitive, high-nickel olivines (337 to 682 ppm) have a different origin. They could be either the first olivine crystallized from the Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO) with an Earth-like initial composition, or crystallized from a hitherto unrecognized ultra-magnesian lava produced by extensive melting of the early LMO cumulate. The exposure of these mantle olivines was facilitated by their entrainment in ascending high-Mg lavas and conveyed to the surface at the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

PMID:
40268907
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 24 Apr 2025.

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