Magnetic properties of lunar materials: Meteorites, Luna and Apollo return samples

Physics

Scientific paper

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[1595] Geomagnetism And Paleomagnetism / Planetary Magnetism: All Frequencies And Wavelengths, [3662] Mineralogy And Petrology / Meteorite Mineralogy And Petrology, [5440] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Magnetic Fields And Magnetism

Scientific paper

Our natural satellite is the only body in the solar system from which samples are available through two completely different processes: sampling by man made spacecrafts, i.e. « sample return », and natural sampling by impact and transport to the Earth, i.e. meteorites. We present here the first comprehensive study of the magnetic properties of lunar meteorites and compare them with measurements from Apollo and Luna return samples. 34 unpaired lunar meteorites were studied, while new susceptibility measurements were performed on 88 soil and rock samples from the Luan missions, to complement previously published data. New magnetic data was also obtained on 4 Apollo mare basalt samples. The three sources of lunar materials provide coherent range of magnetic properties, although the much larger abundance of anorthositic highland samples in the meteorite collection allows to better describe the properties of this major lunar lithology. Magnetic susceptibility and saturation remanence appear mainly controlled by the amount of metallic iron added by the regolithization processes and meteoritic contamination, as shown by a positive correlation with Ni and Ir content, a decrease of magnetic susceptibility with depth in regolith core profiles, and a decrease with increasing soil size fraction. The observed range of saturation remanence implies that mare basalts cannot contribute significantly to the patchy lunar crustal magnetizations, that must be attributed to impact processed anorthositic or mafic lithologies.

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