Water, Hydroxyl, and the Search for Alteration and Oxidation on the Moon (Invited)

Details Water, Hydroxyl, and the Search for Alteration and Oxidation on the Moon (Invited) Water, Hydroxyl, and the Search for Alteration and Oxidation on the Moon (Invited)

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p34a..03c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P34A-03

Other

[5410] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Composition, [5462] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Polar Regions, [5464] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Remote Sensing, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon

Scientific paper

Recent reports using imaging spectroscopy data from three spacecraft show absorption due to water and hydroxyl on the moon (Pieters et al, 2009; Clark, 2009; Sunshine, 2009). The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) on Chandrayaan-1 provides high spatial resolution data showing extensive water and hydroxyl-bearing minerals in both polar regions and in some fresh lunar craters and mountains. A broad 3-micron bsorption is observed in many locations on the moon, with extensive deposits toward the lunar poles and small localized outcrops at all latitudes, often associated with fresh craters. Narrower absorptions attributed to hydroxyl are also observed regionally and in local outcrops, often associated with fresh craters. Hydroxyl absorption at ~2.85 microns is commonly found in association with anorthositic highlands rocks and soils, whereas an absorption near 2.73 microns is found in association with basaltic mare materials. Current M3 data do not yet allow us to assign specific mineralogy, but additional higher resolution targeted mode data might supply the needed spectral resolution to make identifications. Many OH-bearing minerals can be rejected, as their band positions do not match those observed in the lunar data. Hydroxyl absorptions in minerals cover a wide range of wavelength positions ranging from about 2.7 to beyond 3 microns. Several minerals, including altered anorthite and pyroxenes, have hydroxyl fundamentals in the 2.8-micron region and show spectral structure consistent with the lunar spectra. We find varying water, 2.73- and 2.85-micron absorption strengths with spatial location, and the three seem to vary independently, implying that multiple processes are responsible for the observed signatures. The existence of hydroxyl-bearing minerals in the lunar surface indicates probable alteration on the moon. This leads to the question: Could there be additional indications of alteration and oxidation on the moon? We are currently searching the M3 data for indications of hematite and other oxidized minerals that have spectral features in the M3 spectral range and will report results at the AGU. Mixing models of water and hydroxyl show that the amounts of water indicated in the spectra are dependent on the grain sizes and type of mixing in the lunar rocks and soils but locally could be in the range of 300 to 2,000 parts per million.

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