Workshop on Lunar Volcanic Glasses : scientific and resource potential, held at Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, Texas, October 10-11, 1989

Abstract

Lunar volcanic glasses, of which 25 compositional varieties are presently known, appear to represent primary magmas that were produced by partial melting of differentiated mantle source regions at depths of perhaps 400 to 500 km. These high-magnesian picritic magmas were erupted onto the lunar surface in fire fountains associated with the release of indigenous lunar volatiles. The cosmic significance of this volatile component, in an otherwise depleted Moon, remains a lingering puzzle. The resource potential, if any, of the surface-correlated volatile sublimates on the volcanic glass spherules had not been systematically addressed prior to this workshop.