A Thorium-rich Mare Basalt Rock Fragment from the Apollo 12 Regolith: A Sample from a Young Procellarum Flow?
In this abstract, we report on the composition, mineralogy and petrography of a basaltic rock fragment, 12032,366-18, found in the Apollo 12 regolith. Age data, collected as part of an investigation by Barra et al., will be presented in detail in. Here, only the age dating result is summarized. This...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20050169796 2023-05-15T18:22:50+02:00 A Thorium-rich Mare Basalt Rock Fragment from the Apollo 12 Regolith: A Sample from a Young Procellarum Flow? Jolliff, B. L. Swindle, T. D. Zeigler, R. A. Korotev, R. L. Barra, F. Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available [2005] application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20050169796 unknown Document ID: 20050169796 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20050169796 Copyright, Distribution under U.S. Government purpose rights CASI Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVI, Part 10; LPI-Contrib-1234-Pt-10 2005 ftnasantrs 2019-07-21T07:38:22Z In this abstract, we report on the composition, mineralogy and petrography of a basaltic rock fragment, 12032,366-18, found in the Apollo 12 regolith. Age data, collected as part of an investigation by Barra et al., will be presented in detail in. Here, only the age dating result is summarized. This rock fragment garnered our attention because it is significantly enriched in incompatible elements, e.g., 7 ppm thorium, compared to other known lunar basalts. Its mineral- and trace-element chemistry set it apart from other Apollo 12 basalts and indeed from all Apollo and Luna basalts. What makes it potentially very significant is the possibility that it is a sample of a relatively young, thorium-rich basalt flow similar to those inferred to occur in the Procellarum region, especially northwestern Procellarum, on the basis of Lunar Prospector orbital data. Exploiting the lunar regolith for the diversity of rock types that have been delivered to a landing site by impact processes and correlating them to their likely site of origin using remote sensing will be an important part of future missions to the Moon. One such mission is Moonrise, which would collect regolith samples from the South Pole-Aitken Basin, concentrating thousands of rock fragments of 3-20 mm size from the regolith, and returning the samples to Earth. Other/Unknown Material South pole NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Aitken ENVELOPE(-44.516,-44.516,-60.733,-60.733) Barra ENVELOPE(-61.417,-61.417,-64.367,-64.367) South Pole |
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Open Polar |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
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ftnasantrs |
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topic |
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration |
spellingShingle |
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration Jolliff, B. L. Swindle, T. D. Zeigler, R. A. Korotev, R. L. Barra, F. A Thorium-rich Mare Basalt Rock Fragment from the Apollo 12 Regolith: A Sample from a Young Procellarum Flow? |
topic_facet |
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration |
description |
In this abstract, we report on the composition, mineralogy and petrography of a basaltic rock fragment, 12032,366-18, found in the Apollo 12 regolith. Age data, collected as part of an investigation by Barra et al., will be presented in detail in. Here, only the age dating result is summarized. This rock fragment garnered our attention because it is significantly enriched in incompatible elements, e.g., 7 ppm thorium, compared to other known lunar basalts. Its mineral- and trace-element chemistry set it apart from other Apollo 12 basalts and indeed from all Apollo and Luna basalts. What makes it potentially very significant is the possibility that it is a sample of a relatively young, thorium-rich basalt flow similar to those inferred to occur in the Procellarum region, especially northwestern Procellarum, on the basis of Lunar Prospector orbital data. Exploiting the lunar regolith for the diversity of rock types that have been delivered to a landing site by impact processes and correlating them to their likely site of origin using remote sensing will be an important part of future missions to the Moon. One such mission is Moonrise, which would collect regolith samples from the South Pole-Aitken Basin, concentrating thousands of rock fragments of 3-20 mm size from the regolith, and returning the samples to Earth. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Jolliff, B. L. Swindle, T. D. Zeigler, R. A. Korotev, R. L. Barra, F. |
author_facet |
Jolliff, B. L. Swindle, T. D. Zeigler, R. A. Korotev, R. L. Barra, F. |
author_sort |
Jolliff, B. L. |
title |
A Thorium-rich Mare Basalt Rock Fragment from the Apollo 12 Regolith: A Sample from a Young Procellarum Flow? |
title_short |
A Thorium-rich Mare Basalt Rock Fragment from the Apollo 12 Regolith: A Sample from a Young Procellarum Flow? |
title_full |
A Thorium-rich Mare Basalt Rock Fragment from the Apollo 12 Regolith: A Sample from a Young Procellarum Flow? |
title_fullStr |
A Thorium-rich Mare Basalt Rock Fragment from the Apollo 12 Regolith: A Sample from a Young Procellarum Flow? |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Thorium-rich Mare Basalt Rock Fragment from the Apollo 12 Regolith: A Sample from a Young Procellarum Flow? |
title_sort |
thorium-rich mare basalt rock fragment from the apollo 12 regolith: a sample from a young procellarum flow? |
publishDate |
2005 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20050169796 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-44.516,-44.516,-60.733,-60.733) ENVELOPE(-61.417,-61.417,-64.367,-64.367) |
geographic |
Aitken Barra South Pole |
geographic_facet |
Aitken Barra South Pole |
genre |
South pole |
genre_facet |
South pole |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20050169796 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20050169796 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Distribution under U.S. Government purpose rights |
_version_ |
1766202243546087424 |