Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Extent, Nature, And Origin Of K And Rb Depletions And Isotopic Fractionations In Earth, The Moon, And Other Planetary Bodies, Nicolas Dauphas, Nicole X. Nie, Marc Blanchard, Zhe J. Zhang, Hao Zeng, Justin Y. Hu, Merlin Meheut, Channon Visscher, Robin Canup, Timo Hopp

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Moderately volatile elements (MVEs) are depleted and isotopically fractionated in the Moon relative to Earth. To understand how the composition of the Moon was established, we calculate the equilibrium and kinetic isotopic fractionation factors associated with evaporation and condensation processes. We also reassess the levels of depletions of K and Rb in planetary bodies. Highly incompatible element ratios are often assumed to be minimally affected by magmatic processes, but we show that this view is not fully warranted, and we develop approaches to mitigate this issue. The K/U weight ratios of Earth and the Moon are estimated to be 9704 …

Lunar Stories: The Violence Of Creation, Channon Visscher

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"Tales of the moon’s creation abound in myth, legend, history and science. Given its conspicuous brightness and nearness, we should not be surprised that the moon has captured the imagination since the dawn of human consciousness."

Posting about how the moon was made ­­­­­­­­from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/lunar-stories-the-violence-of-creation/

Chemistry Of The Protolunar Disk And Volatile Depletion Of The Moon, Channon Visscher, Robin M. Canup, Julien Salmon, Bruce Fegley Jr.

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In the giant impact theory for lunar origin, the Moon forms from a circumterrestrial disk of silicate debris produced by the collision of a planetary-sized impactor with the early Earth. Recent accretion models suggest that the final 10-60% of the lunar mass may be provided by the accretion of melt material spreading outward from the inner (Roche-interior) disk over the first ~102 years following the giant impact. The chemical and thermal evolution of the inner disk material is thus expected to strongly influence the bulk chemical composition of the Moon.

In a previous study we explored the chemistry of the …

Protolunar Disk Evolution And The Depletion Of Volatile Elements In The Moon, Robin M. Canup, Channon Visscher, Julien Salmon, Bruce Fegley Jr.

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We explore how the evolution of the protolunar disk could lead to a depletion in K, Na, and Zn in the Moon relative to Earth even in the absence of escape.

Chemistry Of Impact-Generated Silicate Melt-Vapor Debris Disks, Channon Visscher, Bruce Fegley Jr.

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In the giant impact theory for lunar origin, the Moon forms from material ejected by the impact into an Earth-orbiting disk. Here we report the initial results from a silicate melt-vapor equilibrium chemistry model for such impact-generated planetary debris disks. In order to simulate the chemical behavior of a two-phase (melt+vapor) disk, we calculate the temperature-dependent pressure and chemical composition of vapor in equilibrium with molten silicate from 2000 to 4000 K. We consider the elements O, Na, K, Fe, Si, Mg, Ca, Al, Ti, and Zn for a range of bulk silicate compositions (Earth, Moon, Mars, eucrite parent body, …