Lunar mare TiO₂ abundances estimated from UV/Vis reflectance

The visible (400–700 nm) and near-infrared (700–2800 nm) reflectance of the lunar regolith is dominantly controlled by variations in the abundance of plagioclase, iron-bearing silicate minerals, opaque minerals (e.g., ilmenite), and maturation products (e.g., agglutinate glass, radiation-produced rims on soil grains, and Fe-metal). The same materials control reflectance into the near-UV (250–400 nm) with varying degrees of importance. A key difference is that while ilmenite is spectrally neutral in the visible to near-infrared, it exhibits a diagnostic upturn in reflectance in the near-UV, at wavelengths shorter than about 450 nm. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide Angle Camera (WAC) filters were specifically designed to take advantage of this spectral feature to enable more accurate mapping of ilmenite within mare soils than previously possible. Using the reflectance measured at 321 and 415 nm during 62 months of repeated near-global WAC observations, first we found a linear correlation between the TiO₂ contents of the lunar soil samples and the 321/415 nm ratio of each sample return site. We then used the coefficients from the linear regression and the near-global WAC multispectral mosaic to derive a new TiO₂ map. The average TiO₂ content is 3.9 wt% for the 17 major maria. The highest TiO₂ values were found in Mare Tranquillitatis (∼12.6 wt%) and Oceanus Procellarum (∼11.6 wt%). Regions contaminated by highland ejecta, lunar swirls, and the low-TiO₂ maria (e.g., Mare Frigoris, the northeastern units of Mare Imbrium) exhibit very low TiO₂ values (<2 wt%). We find that the Clementine visible to near-infrared based TiO₂ maps (Lucey et al., 2000) have systematically higher values relative to the WAC estimates. The Lunar Prospector Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) TiO₂ map is consistent with the WAC TiO₂ map, although there are local offsets possibly due to the different depth sensitivities and large pixel scale of the GRS relative to the WAC. We find a wide variation of TiO₂ abundances (from 0 to 10 wt%) for early mare volcanism (>2.6 Ga), whereas only medium to high TiO₂ values (average = 6.8 wt%, minimum = 4.5 wt%) are found for younger mare units (<2.6 Ga).