The Growing Diversity of Lunar Basalts
نویسنده
چکیده
Lars Borg (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, LLNL) and colleagues at LLNL, the University of New Mexico, the University of California, Berkeley, and Arizona State University have made detailed measurements of trace elements and isotopes in Northwest Africa (NWA) 032, a lunar basaltic meteorite. Previous studies had already shown that the rock is a low-titanium mare basalt. Among other things, Borg and coworkers determined the isotopic compositions of strontium (Sr), rubidium (Rb), samarium (Sm), and neodymium (Nd) present in the rock when it crystallized. The abundances of these elements and their initial isotopic ratios reflect the chemical characteristics of the region of the lunar interior where the NWA 032 magma formed.
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