Spectral Deconvolution Analysis of Mafic Mineral in Irregular Mare Patches on the Moon

Abstract

Irregular mare patches (IMPs), recently discovered on the Moon, are eruptions of magma on the lunar surface, and their origins are still in question. While prior studies on IMPs have mainly focused on optical image analysis, in this study, an analysis of the characteristics of minerals is performed exemplary for the first time. Modified Gaussian model (MGM) deconvolution was applied to the infrared spectrum to confirm the properties of the mafic mineral. Mafic minerals were analyzed for 6 olivine-rich (Ol-rich) IMPs out of 91 currently reported, and only 4 of them yielded results of significance. All four sites showed more abundance of Fe than Mg, and manifested a weak relationship with Mg-suite rock. However, a problem was discovered during the MGM application process due to pilot implementation. In order to solve this problem, it is required to adjust the MGM initial condition settings more precisely and to increase the signal to noise ratio of the observation data. Moreover, it is necessary to analyze the mineral properties for all IMPs considering minerals other than Ol and utilize them to deduce the origin of the IMPs.