In this paper, lunar mare domes (LMDs) are classified according to morphologic and morphometric (primarily diameter) characteristics, and consideration is given to their origin and role in lunar surface processes. In general, they occur either as low, flat, circular structures with convex shapes, slopes less than about 5 deg, and display summit craters, or as irregular structures often adjacent to highland regions and rarely containing summit craters. It is found that LMDs originate through extrusion of lavas through vents to produce low lava shields, or through flooding and draping of preexisting topography to produce kipukas and irregular domes. Smooth, vent-related mare domes range from about 3-17 km in diameter and up to several hundred meters in elevation; they are similar in morphology to small terrestrial lava shields.

Lunar Mare Domes: Classification and Modes of Origin

The Moon is thought to have originated with a magma ocean that produced a plagioclase flotation crust as solidification proceeded. Ages of anorthositic crust range over at least 200 million years. The model for solidification presented here integrates chemical and physical constraints of lunar magma ocean solidification to determine (1) the final thickness of flotation crust generated by a fractionally solidifying magma ocean, (2) the timescale of crystallization before plagioclase is a stable phase, (3) the timescale of solidification after the formation of the plagioclase flotation crust, and (4) the post-overturn lunar mantle composition and structure. We find that magma oceans of as much as 1000 km depth are consistent with creating an anorthositic crust 40 to 50 km in thickness. Solidification of the magma ocean prior to formation of the flotation crust may occur on the order of 1000 years, and complete solidification would require additional ten to tens of millions of years. Reconciling these short model timescales with radiometric dates of crustal samples requires either a very late-forming Moon combined with finding older crustal ages to be incorrect, or calling on tidal heating of the crust by the early Earth to prolong solidification. Gravitationally driven overturn of cumulates during tidal heating provides a mechanism for creating the compositions and ages of the lunar Mg suite of crustal rocks. Further, we find that upon crystallization, the Moon likely began with an azimuthally heterogeneous, gravitationally stable mantle, after magma ocean cumulate overturn. This result may help explain the experimentally determined origin of picritic glasses at similar depths but from different source materials.

The Lunar Magma Ocean: Reconciling the Solidification Process with Lunar Petrology and Geochronology

Young lunar mare basalts in the Chang'e-5 sample return region, northern Oceanus Procellarum

Lunar mare regolith is traditionally thought to have formed by impact bombardment of newly emplaced coherent solidified basaltic lava. We use new models for initial emplacement of basalt magma to predict and map out thicknesses, surface topographies and internal structures of the fresh lava flows, and pyroclastic deposits that form the lunar mare regolith parent rock, or protolith. The range of basaltic eruption types produce widely varying initial conditions for regolith protolith, including (1) autoregolith, a fragmental meter-thick surface deposit that forms upon eruption and mimics impact-generated regolith in physical properties, (2) lava flows with significant near-surface vesicularity and macroporosity, (3) magmatic foams, and (4) dense, vesicle-poor flows. Each protolith has important implications for the subsequent growth, maturation, and regional variability of regolith deposits, suggesting wide spatial variations in the properties and thickness of regolith of similar age. Regolith may thus provide key insights into mare basalt protolith and its mode of emplacement.

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Rethinking Lunar Mare Basalt Regolith Formation: New Concepts of Lava Flow Protolith and Evolution of Regolith Thickness and Internal Structure

Copernican-Aged (<200 Ma) Impact Ejecta at the Chang'e-5 Landing Site: Statistical Evidence From Crater Morphology, Morphometry, and Degradation Models

In this paper, we proposed an improved mobile fronthaul architecture employing the SNR-improved delta-sigma digitization scheme and 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) format. Different from traditional 2-bit quantization, this scheme deploys two-fold delta-sigma quantization, which uses 1-bit delta-sigma modulator to quantize the signal, and another 1-bit delta-sigma modulator to quantize the in-band noise. A significant reduction of the in-band noise can be achieved only applying a differentiator, bringing about a much better noise shaping performance. Meanwhile, the two 1-bit streams can be combined and transmitted in a PAM-4 manner through an intensity modulation direct detection (IM-DD) channel. We have successfully experimentally demonstrated the digitization and transmission of 65536 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) baseband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal with sampling rate of 1.25 GSa/s over 20-km fiber with standard 10-Gbaud PAM-4 signal, with a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 57.7 dB. Compared to the conventional 2-bit quantized OFDM scheme, experimental results show that a significant SNR improvement of 17.7 dB has been achieved by the proposed scheme. In addition, we also realized a transmission of 16384-QAM intermediate frequency (IF) signal at the center frequency of 3.5 GHz (with an SNR of 49.6 dB). An improvement of 15.9 dB can also be maintained.

An SNR-improved Transmitter of Delta-sigma Modulation Supported Ultra-High-Order QAM Signal for Fronthaul/WiFi Applications

Ring-moat dome structures (RMDSs) are positive morphologic features found clustered across many mare regions on the Moon, of which only a few isolated examples have been previously reported. Our continuing survey has expanded the known locations of the RMDSs from ~2,600 to over 8,000, indicating that RMDSs are more common geological features than previously thought. This work presents a detailed geomorphological analysis of 532 RMDSs identified in several mare basins. The combination of detailed elemental mapping, morphological and morphometric analyses, spatial distribution relationships with other geologic structures, and comparison with terrestrial analogs lead us to conclude that (1) RMDSs represent low circular mounds with diameters of a few hundred meters (average about 200 m) and a mean height of 3.5 m. The mounds are surrounded by moats ranging from tens to over 100 m in width and up to several meters in depth; (2) there is a wide variation of titanium abundances, although RMDSs are more commonly found in mare regions of moderate-to-high titanium content (>3 wt% TiO2); (3) RMDSs are found to occur on or around fractures, graben, and volcanic edifices (small shields and cones); (4) a spatial association between RMDSs and Irregular Mare Patches (see Braden et al., 2014, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2252) is observed, suggesting that both may form from related lava flows; (5) comparisons between RMDSs and lava inflationary structures on Earth support an inflation-related extrusive nature and a genetic relationship with host lava flow processes; and (6) RMDS embayment relationships with craters of different degradation ages superposed on the host mare, and regolith development models, produces conflicting age relationships and divide theories of RMDS origin into two categories, (1) synchronous with the emplacement and cooling of the host lava flows ~3–4 Ga and (2) emplaced substantially after the host mare lava unit, in the period ~0–3 Ga. We outline the evidence supporting this age conundrum and implications for the different theories of origin and describe future research avenues to help resolve these outstanding questions. ©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

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Ring-Moat Dome Structures (RMDSs) in the Lunar Maria: Statistical, Compositional, and Morphological Characterization and Assessment of Theories of Origin

Ring-moat dome structures (RMDSs) are small circular mounds of diameter typically about 200 m and ∼3–4 m in height, surrounded by narrow, shallow moats. They occur in clusters, are widespread in ancient Imbrian-aged mare basalt host units and show mineralogies comparable to those of their host units. Based on these close associations and similarities, a model has been proposed for the formation of RMDS as the result of late-stage flow inflation, with second boiling releasing quantities of magmatic volatiles that migrate to the top of the flow as magmatic foams and extrude through cracks in the cooled upper part of the flow to produce the small RMDS domes and surrounding moats. In contrast to this model advocating a contemporaneous emplacement of RMDSs and their host lava flows, a range of observations suggests that the RMDS formed significantly after the emplacement and cooling of their host lava flows, perhaps as recently as in the Copernican Period (∼1.1 Ga to the present). These observations include: (a) stratigraphic embayment of domes into post-lava flow emplacement impact craters; (b) young crater degradation age estimates for the underlying embayed craters; (c) regolith development models that predict thicknesses in excess of the observed topography of domes and moats; (d) landform diffusional degradation models that predict very young ages for mounds and moats; (e) suggestions of fewer superposed craters on the mounds than on the adjacent host lava flows, and (f) observations of superposed craters that suggest that the mound substrate does not have the properties predicted by the magmatic foam model. Together, these observations are consistent with the RMDS formation occurring during the period after the extrusion and solidification of the host lava flows, up to and including the geologically recent Late Copernican, that is, the last few hundreds of millions of years of lunar history. We present and discuss each of these contradictory data and interpretations and summarize the requirements for magma ascent and eruption models that might account for young RMDS ages. We conclude with a discussion of the tests and future research and exploration that might help resolve the RMDS age and mode of emplacement conundrum.

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The Lunar Mare Ring-Moat Dome Structure (RMDS) Age Conundrum: Contemporaneous With Imbrian-Aged Host Lava Flows or Emplaced in the Copernican?

LROC NAC-based high-resolution (2 m per pixel) digital elevation models (DEMs) of twelve regions on the Moon containing ring-moat dome structures (RMDSs)

Yong L. Zou

Papers

An SNR-improved Transmitter of Delta-sigma Modulation Supported Ultra-High-Order QAM Signal for Fronthaul/WiFi Applications

Ring-Moat Dome Structures (RMDSs) in the Lunar Maria: Statistical, Compositional, and Morphological Characterization and Assessment of Theories of Origin

The Lunar Mare Ring-Moat Dome Structure (RMDS) Age Conundrum: Contemporaneous With Imbrian-Aged Host Lava Flows or Emplaced in the Copernican?

LROC NAC-based high-resolution (2 m per pixel) digital elevation models (DEMs) of twelve regions on the Moon containing ring-moat dome structures (RMDSs)