Controls on Lunar Basaltic Volcanic Eruption Structure and Morphology: Gas Release Patterns in Sequential Eruption Phases

Abstract

AbstractAssessment of mare basalt gas release patterns during individual eruptions provides the basis for predicting the effect of vesiculation processes on the structure and morphology of associated features. We subdivide typical lunar eruptions into four phases: Phase 1, dike penetrates to the surface, transient gas release phase; Phase 2, dike base still rising, high‐flux hawaiian eruptive phase; Phase 3, dike equilibration, lower flux hawaiian to strombolian transition phase; and Phase 4, dike closing, strombolian vesicular flow phase. We show how these four phases of mare basalt volatile release, together with total dike volumes, initial magma volatile content, vent configuration, and magma discharge rate, can help relate the wide range of apparently disparate lunar volcanic features (pyroclastic mantles, small shield volcanoes, compound flow fields, sinuous rilles, long lava flows, pyroclastic cones, summit pit craters, irregular mare patches, and ring moat dome structures) to a common set of eruption processes.