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Icarus 283 (2017) 254–267 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Icarus journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/icarus Hansteen Mons: An LROC geological perspective ∗ Joseph M. Boyce a, , Thomas A. Giguere a, B. Ray Hawke a,1, Peter J. Mouginis-Mark a, Mark S. Robinson b, Samuel J. Lawrence b, David Trang a, Ryan N. Clegg-Watkins c,d a Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA b School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA c Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA d Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Mons Hansteen is a relatively high-albedo, well-known lunar “red spot” located on the southern mar- Received 1 July 2015 gin of Oceanus Procellarum (2.3 °S, 50.2 °W). It is an arrowhead-shaped ( ∼ 25 km on a side), two-layer Revised 17 February 2016 mesa with a small cone-shaped massif on its north edge formed by three morphologically and com- Accepted 11 August 2016 positionally distinct geologic units. These units were emplaced in three phases over nearly 200 million Available online 18 August 2016 years. The oldest ( ∼3.74 Ga), Hilly–Dissected unit, composed of high-silica, and low-FeO content materials Keywords: formed a low, steep sided mesa. The materials of this unit erupted mainly from vents along northeast- Moon, surface and northwest-trending sets of fractures. The Pitted unit, which comprises the upper-tier mesa, is com- Silicic posed of high-silica and even lower-FeO content materials. This material was erupted at ∼ 3.5 Ga from Geological processes numerous closely spaced vents (i.e., pits) formed along closely spaced northeast-southwest-trending sets Geologic mapping of fractures. At nearly the same time, eruptions of lower silica and higher FeO materials occurred on the north flank of Mons Hansteen at the intersection of two major fractures to produce the North Massif unit. The eruptions that created the North Massif units also produced materials that thinly blanketed small ar- eas of the Hilly-Dissected and Pitted units on the north flank of Mons Hansteen. Also at nearly the same time (i.e., ∼ 3.5 Ga), basalt flows formed the surrounding mare. Each unit of Mons Hansteen appears to be mantled by locally derived ash, which only modestly contaminated the other units. The morphology of Mons Hansteen (especially the Pitted unit) suggests a style of volcanism where only a relatively small amount of material is explosively erupted from numerous, closely spaced vents. ©2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction more evolved highlands compositions such as dacite or rhyolite ( Malin, 1974; Wood and Head, 1975; Head and McCord, 1978 ). Unraveling the nature of lunar “red spots”, such as Mon One of these red spots, Mons Hansteen (IAU, 1976, see website Hansteen (MH), has major implications for lunar thermal history at planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov) also known as Hansteen α (e.g., and crustal evolution ( Hagerty, 2006; Jolliff et al., 2011 ), thus see Wagner et al., 2010 ) or Hansteen Alpha (e.g., see Hawke et al., providing crucial information for understanding the early Moon. 2003 ) are hereafter referred to as Mons Hansteen is a relatively Lunar red spots are characterized by a relatively high albedo and high-albedo, polygonal, arrowhead-shaped, mesa that measures a strong absorption in the UV ( Wood and Head, 1975; Head and ∼25 km on a side. It is located on the southern margin of Oceanus McCord, 1978 ). Some early workers presented evidence that at Procellarum adjacent to the craters Billy and Hansteen at 12.3 °S, least some red spots were produced by non-mare or highlands 50.2 °W ( Fig. 1 ). volcanism and suggested a connection with KREEP basalts or even New high-resolution observations from the Lunar Reconnais- sance Orbiter (LRO) mission Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), Wide Angle Camera (WAC) and Narrow Angle Camera ∗ Corresponding author. (NAC) images and image mosaics provide the means to signifi- E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J.M. Boyce), thomas.giguere@ cantly advance our understanding of the geology and morphology intergraph.com (T.A. Giguere), [email protected] (P.J. Mouginis-Mark), of this volcanic center. The objective of this study is to characterize [email protected] (M.S. Robinson), [email protected] (S.J. Lawrence), [email protected] (D. Trang), [email protected] (R.N. Clegg-Watkins). geologic units of MH, and to determine their morphology, extent, 1 Deceased. distribution, age, composition, and geologic history. Recently http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2016.08.013 0019-1035/© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. J.M. Boyce et al. / Icarus 283 (2017) 254–267 255 Fig. 1. Mons Hansteen is located at 12.3 °S, 50.2 °W on the southern margin of Oceanus Procellarum near the craters Hansteen and Billy. Base image on the left is a full Moon telescopic view, and the one on at right is a mosaic of LROC WAC images (from LROC Quickmap). North is at the top in both images. Location of Fig. 4 indicated by white box. Fig. 2. Oblique view from the east looking west of Mons Hansteen. The dotted lines trace the centers of the broad valleys developed in the Hilly-Dissected unit. North is to the right. LROC image M1154506530. acquired meter scale images from the LROC cameras ( Robinson has a distinctive surface texture, color, and albedo compared to et al., 2010 ) ( Fig. 2 ) combined with datasets from previous mis- the nearby highlands and adjacent mare units. sions (e.g., Clementine, Kaguya) enable new detailed mapping and Wagner et al., (2010) mapped MH from Lunar Orbiter IV images discovery of three geologic units in MH, revealing its history and and described a flat summit region reminiscent of a mesa. They how it compares with other lunar red spot volcanic centers. noted that the summit area, as well as the flanks, appears much more rugged than the Gruithuisen domes ( Head and McCord, 1978; 2. Background Chevrel et al., 1999 ) which are characteristic of level summits. Further, Wagner et al., (2010) identified two small, distinct areas McCauley (1973) described MH as being a steep-sided, bulbous, on the summit region of MH, and measured superimposed crater very bright dome of material exhibiting a hackly surface. He also frequency, but the low-resolution images they used prevented identified several small, linear, smooth-walled depressions at the them from detailed geologic mapping of this feature. From two crests of gentle individual highs and interpreted these depressions distinct areas of the summit they found two statistically significant as probable volcanic vents. Wood and Head (1975) noted that MH crater distributions, with cratering model ages of 3.74 and 3.55 Ga 256 J.M. Boyce et al. / Icarus 283 (2017) 254–267 (a model age of 3.67 for the sum of the two areas). Based on these measurements, Wagner et al., (2010) suggested that MH is Upper Imbrian age, clearly postdating the highlands materials, and pre- dating the surrounding mare materials, confirming earlier results by Wood and Head [1975]. The younger age of 3.55 Ga measured on its summit could be connected to active mare volcanism in the area between 3.5 and 3.6 Ga., but Wagner et al., (2010) did not map these two count areas as separate geologic units. Remote sensing estimates and geomorphic analysis suggest that MH is composed of low-iron and silica-rich rock, and likely represents an evolved lunar lithology presently thought to be anal- ogous to terrestrial granites and felsites, although the origin and emplacement of evolved silicic lithologies on the Moon remains unknown ( Hawke et al., 2003; Glotch et al., 2010; Greenhagen et al., 2010; Paige et al., 2010; Glotch et al., 2011; Haggerty, 2006; Jolliff et al., 2011 ). Hawke et al., (2003) and Wagner et al., (2010) noted that if Mons Hansteen was present prior to the for- mation of Billy and Hansteen craters, it should have been covered with FeO- and TiO2 -rich ejecta since it is within one crater diam- eter of the rim crest of each crater. Since it is not, they concluded that MH was emplaced on top of the FeO-rich ejecta deposits, consistent with the model crater age of Wagner et al., (2010) . Recent research using Clementine, Lunar Prospector (LP), and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) data have provided strong evi- dence that some red spots, including the MH, are dominated by Th Fig. 3. LROC WAC images mosaic with the LRO Diviner Standard Christiansen Fea- and silica-rich, highly evolved highlands lithologies ( Hawke et al., ture Value (silica) map superposed. The white indicates areas of relatively high- silica content. (Image from LROC Quickmap mosaic). 20 03; Lawrence et al., 20 05; Hagerty et al., 20 06; Glotch et al., 2010; Greenhagen et al., 2010; Glotch et al., 2011; Hawke et al., 2011; 2012; Ashley et al., 2016). For example, Clementine UV-VIS Gruithuisen domes. They note that to be consistent with their images were used to produce FeO, TiO2 , and optical maturity maps density observations silica-rich magmas required, can be produced of the MH region utilizing the algorithms of Lucey et al. (2000a; b). either by 1) silicate liquid immiscibility ( Hagerty et al., 2006 ), or > Mare units in this region exhibit FeO abundances 16 wt%, and 2) crustal melting induced by basaltic underplating. They favored TiO2 values range between 4 wt% and 8 wt%.