ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Planetary Science
This article is part of the Research TopicRecent Advances in Remote Sensing Research on Terrestrial Planets, Moons, and Small BodiesView all articles
New insight into the composition of the lunar surface from SiO2 map
Provisionally accepted
- 1State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan Univesity, Wuhan, China
- 2North China Institute of Science and Technology, Langfang, China
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The distribution of FeO and TiO2 reveals mantle source characteristics and basaltic diversity, whereas SiO2 distribution is closely related to magma evolution and crustal differentiation. However, global studies on SiO2 remain limited. To address this gap, we combined the latest lunar sample data, Kaguya Multiband Imager spectra, and Christiansen Feature to develop a One-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (1D-CNN) for mapping lunar SiO2. The results reveal a clear spatial asymmetry in SiO2: high-latitude regions on the nearside show higher SiO2, while low-latitude regions exhibit lower values. Mare Tranquillitatis and Oceanus Procellarum have low SiO2 but distinct TiO2 variations, indicating different basaltic types and magmatic sources. The highlands are dominated by ferroan anorthosite, whereas the maria mainly consist of mafic to ultramafic rocks. Incorporating Chang’E-6 samples and Christiansen Feature data improved model accuracy. Future work on silicic volcanic rocks will further refine the global SiO2 map and deepen understanding of lunar crustal evolution.
Keywords: Moon, oxide, spectrum, SiO2, 1D-CNN
Received: 01 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Qiu, Yan and Sihai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Denggao Qiu, denggaoqiu@whu.edu.cn
Jianguo Yan, jgyan@whu.edu.cn
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