The classical fractional crystallisation scenario for magma ocean solidification on the Moon suggests that its crust formed by flotation of light anorthite minerals on top of a liquid ocean, which has been used to explain the anorthositic composition of the lunar crust. However, this model points to rapid crustal formation over tens of million years and struggles to predict the age range of primitive ferroan anorthosites from 4.5 and 4.3 Ga.
Here I will present a new paradigm of slushy magma ocean crystallisation in which crystals are suspended throughout the magma ocean, and the lunar crust forms by magmatic processes over several hundreds of thousand years.
We will then focus on the effects of the particular characteristics of this primary crust on the transport and eruption of magma on the Moon.