Lunar Procellarum KREEP Terrane (PKT) Stratigraphy and Structure with Depth: Evidence for Significantly Decreased Th Concentrations and Thermal Evolution Consequences

Abstract

Dating from the lunar magma ocean solidification period, the Procellarum KREEP Terrane (PKT) occupies 16% of the surface but has a much higher thorium abundance compared to the rest of the Moon and is thus interpreted to carry 40% of the radioactive elements by volume in the form of an anomalously thick KREEP-rich layer. Subsequent research has focused on the processes responsible for PKT concentration and localization (e.g., degree-1 convection, farside impact basin effects, etc.), and the effect of PKT high-radioactivity localization on lunar thermal evolution (e.g., topography relaxation, mantle heating, late-stage mare basalt generation, etc.). Here we use a stratigraphic approach and new crustal thickness data to probe the nature of the PKT with depth. We find that most PKT characteristics can be explained by sequential impact cratering events that excavated and redistributed to the surface/near-surface a much thinner Th-rich KREEP layer at depth, implying that no anomalous conditions of PKT thickness, radioactive abundances, geodynamics, thermal effects or magma generation are likely to be required as in the previous studies.

Keywords

• Procellarum KREEP Terrane (PKT)
• radioactive elements
• thorium
• thermal anomaly
• stratigraphy
• structure with depth