Cooling histories of Apollo 15 quartz-normative basalts

Controlled cooling rate studies of vitrophyre 15597 are used to calculate the physical properties of a quartz-normative magma as well as cooling histories of Apollo 15 quartz-normative basalts (QNB). Pyroxene phenocrysts of a QNB magma do not settle appreciably during the cooling of the flow unit; this behavior is consistent with the small degree of chemical differentiation that occurred between members of the suite. Two types of cooling histories for QNB are discerned. The vitrophyres experienced initial slow cooling followed by rapid cooling, and the coarse-grained microgabbros underwent slow nearly linear cooling histories. Textural evidence suggests that lunar vitrophyres crystallized near the top of the flow. It is suggested that the pattern of cooling may have been caused by the chilling of liquids that inherited early crystals in the interior of the flow.