Native and Rare-Earth Metals on the Earth, the Moon, in Tektites, and Meteorites

Abstract

In order to develop astromineralogy, an emerging new research area, the results of studying the features of mineral genesis and geochemistry of native (SE) and rare-earth (TR) elements in host rocks of the biosphere outer shells and in space objects are presented. A set of methods, such as modern methods of astromineralogy, as well as modeling and the applied system analysis, is used. The theoretical models and hypotheses of the mechanisms of substructure-phase transformations of TR and SE elements under the influence of specific physicochemical conditions on the Moon and in space objects in comparison with the terrestrial objects are proposed. The theoretical importance and a practical role of intergeosphere criteria and systemology are shown. The material differences are substantiated between terrestrial and space objects that constitute seven groups of indicating criteria, whose complex can be used for objects of unknown origin: (1) geological and structural features—only the geological environment contains specific rocks of the catastrophite class, which always overlie basement rocks with angular unconformity and have signs of cooling and a reducing environment similar to the space environment; (2) petrochemical composition; (3) impurity elements; (4) the quantity, composition, morphology and structure of the SE; (5) the isotopic composition of carbon 14C; (6) composition of chemical elements of the TR group and radionuclides; and (7) different proton radiation power in the composition of solar wind under conditions of high vacuum in space (exotic micromixtures of native W and low-melting Sb, etc., in regolith) and the Earth’s atmosphere. New knowledge is applicable for the development of planetology, the theory of intergeosphere processes, the expansion of the resource base on the Moon, and the provision of space safety for the biosphere. The connection between catastrophic processes in the geoactive zones of the Earth and collision zones with the dispersion of minerals and rocks to nanosized suspensions and the formation of electrets in carrying over anomalous amounts of dust and oxides of C, N, and S to the atmosphere is discussed. These results are laid in the foundation of the method for earthquake prediction (patent no. 2516617…, 2014). A new class of multifunctional glass-crystalline materials, sikams (certificate no. 92355), which are also obtained from rocks comparable to lunar basalts in petrogeochemical features, is discovered.