Mapping of Compositional Diversity and Chronological Ages of Lunar Farside Multiring Mare Moscoviense Basin: Implications to the Middle Imbrian Mare Basalts

Abstract

Abstract The Mare Moscoviense is an astonishing rare flatland multi-ring basin and one of the recognizable mare regions on the Moon’s farside. The mineralogical, chronological, topographical and morphological studies of the maria surface of the Moon provide a primary understanding of the origin and evolution of the mare provinces. In this study, the Chandrayaan-1 M3 data have been employed to prepare optical maturity index, FeO and TiO2 concentration, and standard band ratio map to detect the mafic indexes like olivine and pyroxene minerals. The crater size frequency distribution method has been applied to LROC WAC data to obtain the absolute model ages of the Moscoviense basin. The four geological unit ages were observed as 3.57 Ga (U-2), 3.65 Ga (U-1), 3.8 Ga (U-3) and 3.92 Ga (U-4), which could have been formed between the Imbrian and Nectarian epochs. The M3 imaging and reflectance spectral parameters were used to reveal the minerals like pyroxene, olivine, ilmenite, plagioclase, orthopyroxene-olivine-spinel lithology, and olivine-pyroxene mixtures present in the gabbroic basalt, anorthositic and massive ilmenite rocks, and validated with the existing database. The results show that the Moscoviense basin is dominated by intermediate TiO2 basalts that derived from olivine-ilmenite-pyroxene cumulate depths ranging from 200 to 500 km between 3.5 Ga and 3.6 Ga.