PUBLICATIONS Geophysical Research Letters RESEARCH LETTER The effect of ilmenite viscosity on the dynamics 10.1002/2017GL073702 and evolution of an overturned lunar Key Points: cumulate mantle • We apply the latest experimental result of ilmenite to the lunar mantle Nan Zhang1,2,3 , Nick Dygert1,4,5 , Yan Liang1 , and E. M. Parmentier1 dynamics • The weak ilmenite rheology leads to a 1Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, 2Key viscosity reduction of ilmenite-bearing cumulates Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, Institution of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 3 4 • A 1 order magnitude of viscosity China, Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australian, Australia, Jackson School of reduction in the cumulate mantle Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA, 5Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of causes the upwelling dynamics to a Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA dramatic change Supporting Information: Abstract Lunar cumulate mantle overturn and the subsequent upwelling of overturned mantle cumulates • Supporting Information S1 provide a potential framework for understanding the first-order thermochemical evolution of the Moon. Upwelling of ilmenite-bearing cumulates (IBCs) after the overturn has a dominant influence on the dynamics Correspondence to: N. Zhang, and long-term thermal evolution of the lunar mantle. An important parameter determining the stability and
[email protected] convective behavior of the IBC is its viscosity, which was recently constrained through rock deformation experiments. To examine the effect of IBC viscosity on the upwelling of overturned lunar cumulate mantle, Citation: here we conduct three-dimensional mantle convection models with an evolving core superposed by an Zhang, N., N.