Abstract With the assumption that Mars is indeed their parent body, the SNC-meteorites can be used to calculate the bulk composition of Mars. The resulting chemistry of mantle and core as well as the core mass fit well with geophysical data of Mars, especially its density and its moment of inertia factor. With the data for Mars, the compositional similarity of the lunar and terrestrial mantle becomes even more striking as they differ considerably from that of Mars. This can be taken as further strong evidence for a close genetic relation of Moon and Earth, most likely to be explained by the impact model for the formation of the Moon. The Moon is depleted relative to the Earth for all volatile and moderately volatile elements. These depletions can be understood by a second fractionation step during the accretion of the Moon in an orbit around the Earth. Increasing depletion of siderophile elements in the lunar mantle with increasing siderophility are easy explainable by a second segregation of a small amount of metal. On the other hand, relative to C 1-abundances the lunar mantle shows the same striking depletion of Mn, Cr, V, and P as the Earth's mantle. To the contrary, these elements have normal abundances in the Martian mantle. A further special feature of the Earth's mantle the high abundance of Ni and Co is not observed in the Martian mantle.
Comparison of the chemistry of moon and mars
Advances in Space Research ; 10 , 3-4 ; 7-16
01.01.1989
10 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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