Current Understanding on the Genesis of Terrestrial Basaltic Rocks: Implications for the Evolution of Rocky Planetary Crusts

Dear Colleagues,

Basalt is the most abundant type of eruptive rock on the surfaces of the inner solar system’s rocky planetary bodies.  The basaltic rocks occurring on the surface of planet Earth are perhaps among the voluminous and best-studied rocks in our inner solar system. The knowledge derived through modern research on these basaltic rocks could be extended to evaluate the evolution of planetary basaltic crusts. Although terrestrial basaltic rocks, occurring both on the modern ocean floor and continents, have been studied extensively using petrographic, mineral, and whole-rock geochemical and isotopic techniques and approaches of experimental petrology, many fundamental questions remain unresolved—for example, the origin of continental flood basalts (CFBs), the debatable mantle plume hypothesis and its possible role in basalt petrogenesis, and the contamination of upper mantle with components of continental crust during Gondwana breakup and its impact on geochemistry of oceanic basalts. If the modern plate tectonic-like setting was absent in the Precambrian era, what would be the model for explaining the origin of these terrestrial Precambrian basalts?

Petrochemical information on extraterrestrial basalts comes from studies on returned and achondrite samples mainly from the Moon, Mars, and parent body of HED meteorite vestas. The origin of high Ti basalts on the Moon, the role of KREEP components in lunar basalt petrogenesis, serial magmatism explaining the petrologic diversity in the lunar crust, the nature of young volcanism on the Moon, the ancient basaltic crust and geological evolution of Mars, the enrichment and depletion of Martian mantle through crust, etc. are topic of significant interest. It is also important to explore why terrestrial subduction-zone-related basalts (i.e., high-Al₂O₃ basalts) are not abundant in the achondritic meteorite population. To gather the most up-to-date answers to some of these questions, the journal Minerals is planning to publish a Special Issue on ‘Terrestrial and Planetary Basaltic Rocks’, which will focus on the following themes: a) terrestrial MORB and its planetary significance, b) terrestrial subduction zone basalts, c) origin of extraterrestrial basalts using suitable terrestrial analogy, and d) mantle plume and its impact on basalt petrogenesis, especially continental flood basalts occurring in our planet.

Dr. Saumitra Misra
Dr. Dwijesh Ray
Prof. Dr. Zhaochong Zhang
Guest Editors

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