Lunar Surface Rocks and Fines: Chemical Composition

Lunar Rocks

The Moon, like the Earth, is made of rocks. To learn about the Moon and its history, one has to learn something about lunar rocks—what they are made of, how they are studied and classified, and how our experiences in interpreting rocks on the Earth have been applied to rocks on the Moon. The lunar samples have provided our only direct information about the Moon’s minerals, chemical composition,...

Chemical individuality of lunar, meteoritic, and terrestrial silicate rocks.

COMPACTION BY IMPACT Or UNCONSOLIDATED LUNAR FINES

New Hugoniot and release adiabat data for 1.8 g/cm3 lunar fines (sample, 70051) in the N 2 to 70 kbar range demonstrate that upon shock compression intrinsic crystal density (. 3.1 g/cm3) is achieved under shock stress of 15 to 20 kbar. Release adiabat determinatioc;s indicate that measurable irreversible compaction occurs upon achieving shock pressures above . k kbar. For shocks in the r y 7 t...

The Composition of the Lunar Surface Relative to Lunar Samples

Introduction: The non-mare pristine samples are divided into two major suites, the ferroan anorthosites (FAN) and the Mg-suite [1]. FAN is typically characterized by high values of plagiophile interelement ratios, for example, the calcium content of plagioclase, and very high plagioclase content (though more mafic members exist). FAN is well separated from the Mgsuite on a plot of Mg-number vs....

Cathodoluminescence of Lunar Minerals and Rocks