Luna 24 - Opaque mineral chemistry of gabbroic and basaltic fragments from Mare Crisium

Spinels and ilmenites are relatively sparse in the Luna 24 gabbro and basalts. Spinel compositions show some affinities to those of spinels in Apollo 12, Apollo 14 and Luna 16 basalts; a characteristic feature is high Al2O3, reaching a maximum of 19.8 wt%. A comparison of spinels in the Luna 24 gabbro with those in other deep-seated lunar intrusive rocks shows a characteristic trend for Fe/Mg. This trend is systematic from gabbro to anorthosite to troctolite and is interpreted to be P-T dependent. Compositions of spinels in the gabbro fall within the Cr/Al trend defined by the spinels of the basalts, but form a Fe/Mg trend parallel to that of the basalts; this relationship suggests that both the gabbro and the basalts are derived from a closely similar source region, with the basalts originating at a slightly greater depth than the gabbro. The spinels in both rock types are considered to have formed at high crustal levels, at low pressures. The Luna 24 data suggest that the compositional discontinuities which exist between chromian spinels and titanian spinels in a large proportion of mare basalts are the result of nucleation of chromian spinels at high crustal levels prior to eruption, and of titanian spinels during melt crystallization at the lunar surface.