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Compositional mapping and the evolutionary history of Mare Tranquillitatis

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Abstract

This study signifies the compositional variability of Mare Tranquillitatis basalt and the Irregular Mare patches (IMPs) – the youngest volcanic feature on the Moon, using hyperspectral data from Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) for the first time. Along with composition, the topographic and morphological mapping has been done to understand the possible evolutionary history of this mare. Total 22 spectral units has been identified based on Integrated Band Depth (IBD) parameter technique. Number of reflectance spectra were collected from the fresh craters of each spectral unit and quantitative mineralogical abundances estimated using band parameters like band centre, band strength and band area. The result shows abundances of olivine and pyroxene mixture bearing material in the mare basalt. The compositional map shows smaller spectral units in the western-low lying half and larger spatial distribution of spectral unit in the eastern half depicts probable large-scale volcanic eruption in the eastern part that may have flowed to longer distances from the Cauchy shield to the central mare. This study marks 61 new domes in the Cauchy shield area and also depicts possible formation and evolutionary history of the Mare Tranquillitatis.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India for financial support under the CH-1 AO Research project B.19013/39/2016-sec.2. The authors are also grateful to Satadru Bhattacharya and Mamta Chauhan for their valuable suggestions during the preparation of the manuscript and to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions, which greatly enhanced this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geology Department, M.G. Science Institute, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

    H Bhatt & P Solanki

  2. Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, ISRO, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    P Chauhan

  3. Research Scholar, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, 380 009, India

    H Bhatt

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  1. H Bhatt
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Correspondence to H Bhatt.

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Communicated by N V Chalapathi Rao

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Bhatt, H., Chauhan, P. & Solanki, P. Compositional mapping and the evolutionary history of Mare Tranquillitatis. J Earth Syst Sci 129, 45 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-019-1302-7

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