Dataset for Three-dimensional density structure underneath the Marius Hills volcanic complex on the Moon

Marius Hills, situated in the central Oceanus Procellarum on the nearside of the Moon, is a significant volcanic complex on the Moon, characterized by hundreds of domes and cones. Understanding its density structure is essential for enhancing our knowledge of lunar volcanic activity and its evolutionary history, yet it remains controversial. To investigate the density structure beneath Marius Hills, this study developed a new gravity inversion method based on the L1 norm and total variation regularization in spherical coordinates. We validate the new method through a synthetic model test. We then applied it to the inversion of gravity data derived from the GRAIL mission in Marius Hills. Our inversion results reveal two distinct high-density anomalies in the northern and southern parts of Marius Hills. The northern anomaly is located at 14-29 km depth directly beneath the shield volcano of Marius Hills, with a density contrast of ~620 kg/m³ and a volume of about 60×60×15 km³. The southern anomaly exhibits a density contrast of ~440 kg/m³ and a size of 75×75×15 km³ at depths of 18-33 km. These two dense anomalies are likely solidified basaltic magma chambers situated near the crust-mantle boundary, serving as magma sources for the volcanic activities observed in Marius Hills.