Lunar Evolution: Is There a Global Radioactive Crust on the Moon?

Details Lunar Evolution: Is There a Global Radioactive Crust on the Moon? Lunar Evolution: Is There a Global Radioactive Crust on the Moon?

Mar 1977

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1977rspta.285..127r&link_type=abstract

Philosophical Transactions for the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Volume 285, Issue 1327

Physics

Scientific paper

Chemical and isotopic analyses of various grainsize fractions of lunar soils show the presence of an 'exotic component' in practically all lunar soils. The patterns of enrichments in the grain-size fractions and the Sr-isotopic data show that the regolith evolution displays the combined effects comminution of local rock types and addition of the exotic component. The chemical characteristics of this exotic component as deduced from the chemical and isotopic data in soils from Apollo 11, 12, 15 and 16 uniformly point to compositions similar to the material from Fra Mauro region collected in the Apollo 14 mission. There is a strong correlation between the amount of exotic component in a soil and its distance from the Fra Mauro region. It is suggested that the exotic component represents trace element enriched material from the Imbrium-Procellarum region, which was surficially deposited during Imbrium excavation and re-exposed from under the mare-lavas in subsequent cratering events. Surficial transport processes have distributed these materials widely over the lunar surface. There appears no need to invoke a global radioactive crust on the Moon nor of 'hot spots' distributed over the entire surface of the Moon to explain the ubiquitous presence of this component in lunar regolith, nor is there a compelling reason at present to postulate a global melting process for the generation of highly differentiated materials such as 'kreep' and the exotic component.

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