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1.
Xenon extracted in step-wise heating of lunar breccia 14 301 contains a fission-like component in excess of that attributable to uranium decay during the age of the solar system. There seems to be no adequate source for this component other than 244Pu. Verification that this component is in fact due to the spontaneous fission of extinct 244Pu comes from the derived spectrum which is similar to that observed from artificially produced 244Pu. It thus appears that 244Pu was extant at the time lunar crustal material cooled sufficiently to arrest the thermal diffusion of xenon. Subsequent history has apparently maintained the isotopic integrity of plutonium fission xenon.  相似文献   

2.
The Apollo 11 soil breccias are samplers of the ancient lunar environment due to their history in the regolith and their efficient closure to addition of recent solar wind upon compaction. These breccias contain the lowest15N/14N isotopic ratio yet reported for any lunar sample (in fact, for any natural sample). This extends the range of variation of15N/14N of the solar wind to greater than 30%, from a δ15N of ?190‰ in the past to +120‰ at present. No mechanism is yet known that is capable of accounting for such a large change in the15N/14N ratio without producing a substantial concomitant change in the13C/12C ratio, although some sort of nuclear reaction in the sun appears to be required. Apollo 11 soil breccias and 15086 are all formed by meteoritic impacts which compact the lower regolith against the basement rock without much heating. Rock 15086 formed from the layer of regolith between 100 and 200 cm depth, as shown by the close agreement between the nitrogen content and isotopic ratios of 15086 and those of the Apollo 15 deep drill core. Cosmic ray exposure ages, based on spallation-produced15N, are 2.3 ± 0.4 b.y. for Apollo 11 breccias. This age is much greater than the estimate from cosmogenic21Ne, presumably due to diffusive loss of neon.  相似文献   

3.
During on-site inspections to verify the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty (CTBT), soil gas samples may be taken and analysed for their content of the xenon isotopes 131mXe, 133Xe, 133mXe and 135Xe in order to identify a suspected underground nuclear test. These samples might contain natural radioxenon which is present as a trace gas in the ground. This work analyses the different production mechanisms of natural lithospheric radioxenon to assess theoretically the background concentration under different sampling conditions. The results imply that the equilibrium concentrations of the examined xenon isotopes can be measured in certain rock types using actual CTBTO on-site inspection equipment. Radioxenon production is dominated by spontaneous fission of 238U, resulting in a reactor-like xenon isotopic signature rather than an explosion-like signature.  相似文献   

4.
Polymict samples can be used to establish mass-balance constraints regarding the bulk composition of the lunar crust, and to gauge the degree of regional heterogeneity in the composition of the lunar crust. The most ideally polymict type of sample is finely-mixed regolith (lunar soil), or its lithified equivalent, regolith breccia. Fortunately, lunar regolith breccias can occasionally be found at great distances from their points of origin — most of the known lunar meteorites are regolith breccias. We are searching for examples of exotic regolith samples among the Apollo regolith breccia collection. Most of the 21 Apollo regolith breccias analyzed for this study strongly resemble the local soils over which they were collected. Nine regolith breccias from Apollo 16 are surprisingly mature compared to previously-analyzed Apollo 16 regolith breccias, and six of the seven from Apollo 16 Station 5 have lower, more local-soil-like,mg ratios than previously analyzed regolith breccias from this station. Several of the Apollo 14 regolith breccias investigated show significantly highermg, and lower Al, than the local soils.The most interesting sample we have investigated is 14076,1, from a lithology that constitutes roughly half of a 2.0-g pebble. The presence of spherules indicates a regolith derivation for 14076,1, yet its highly aluminous (30 wt.% Al2O3) composition is clearly exotic to the 1.6-km traverse surface over which the Apollo 14 samples were collected. This sample resembles soils from the Descartes (Apollo 16) highlands far more than it does any other polymict sample from the Fra Mauro (Apollo 14) region. The I/sFeO maturity index is extremely low, but this may be a result of thermal annealing. A variety of siderophile elements occur in 14076,1 at typical regolith concentrations. The chemistry of the second most aluminous regolith sample from Apollo 14, 14315, can only be roughly approximated as a mixture of local regolith and 14076,1-like material. However, the low a priori statistical probability for long-distance horizontal transport by impact cratering, along with the relatively high contents of incompatible elements in 14076,1 (despite its high Al content), suggest that this regolith breccia probably originated within a few hundred kilometers of the Appollo 14 site. If so, its compositional resemblance to ferroan anorthosite tends to suggest that the regional crust is, or originally was, far richer in ferroan anorthosite than implied by the meager statistics for pristine rocks from this site. Thus, 14076,1 tends to strengthen the hypothesis that ferroan anorthosite originated as the flotation crust of a global magmasphere.  相似文献   

5.
The depth profile of the neutron-induced fission rate of235U was directly measured to a depth of 350 g/cm2 by the Apollo 17 Lunar Neutron Probe Experiment. The fission rate rises sharply from the surface to a broad maximum from 110 to 160 g/cm2 and drops off at greater depths. The shape of theoretical depth profile of Lingenfelter et al. fits the measured capture rates well at all depths. The absolute magnitude of the experimental fission rates are (11±17)% lower than those calculated theoretically. The excellent agreement between theory and experiment implies that conclusions drawn previously by interpreting lunar sample data with the theoretical capture rates will not require revision. In particular lunar surface processes, rather than uncertainties in the capture rates, are required to explain the relatively low neutron fluences observed for surface soil samples compared to the fluences expected for a uniformly mixed regolith.  相似文献   

6.
All radiometric systems indicate that crust-mantle differentiation on the moon is dominated by events which occurred very early in lunar history. However, due to remaining uncertainties in model parameters and assumptions in the calculation of model ages, it is not yet possible to resolve the precise times of occurrence of these events nor the duration of the formation of the highlands crust. The strongest time constraints are offered by direct radiometric ages of samples formed during this earliest period. Two possible candidates for this material, norites 78236 and 73255,27,45, were examined utilizing the Sm-Nd radiometric system. Sm-Nd systematics of 78236 show post-crystallization disturbance but indicate that this norite crystallized in the lunar crust about 4.34 AE ago. Data for 73255,27,45 define an isochron and yield a crystallization age of 4.23 ± 0.05 AE. The initial Nd isotopic composition of both norites is within uncertainty of a “chondritic” reference reservoir at the time of their respective crystallizations. The implications for lunar crustal formation persisting over a time span of close to 350 m.y. are discussed.  相似文献   

7.
We performed nitrogen and argon isotopic analyses in single 200-μm-sized ilmenite grains of lunar regolith samples 71501, 79035 and 79135. Cosmogenic and trapped components were discriminated using stepwise heating with a power-controlled CO2 laser. Cosmogenic 15N and 38Ar correlate among different ilmenite grains, yielding a mean 15Nc/38Arc production ratio of 14.4±1.0 atoms/atom. This yields a 15N production rate in bulk lunar samples of 3.8-5.6 pg (g rock)−1 Ma−1, which agrees well with previous estimates. The trapped δ15N values show large variations (up to 300‰) among different grains of a given soil, reflecting complex histories of mixing between different end-members. The 36Ar/14N ratio, which is expected to increase with increasing contribution of solar ions, varies from 0.007 to 0.44 times the solar abundance ratio. The trapped δ15N values correlate roughly with the 36Ar/14N ratios from a non-solar end-member characterized by a 36Ar/14N ratio close to 0 and variable but generally positive δ15N values, to lower δ15N values accompanied by increasing 36Ar/14N ratios, supporting the claim of Hashizume et al. (2000) that solar nitrogen is largely depleted in 15N relative to meteoritic or terrestrial nitrogen. Nevertheless, the 36Ar/14N ratio of the 15N-depleted (solar) end-member is lower than the solar abundance ratio by a factor of 2.5-5. We explain this by a reprocessing of implanted solar wind atoms, during which part of the chemically inert rare gases were lost. We estimate that the flux of non-solar N necessary to account for the observed δ15N values is comparable to the flux of micrometeorites and interplanetary dust particles estimated for the Earth. Hence we propose that the variations in δ15N values observed in lunar regolith can be simply explained by mixing between solar wind contributions and micrometeoritic ones infalling on the Moon. Temporal variations of δ15N values among samples of different antiquities could be due to changes in the micrometeoritic flux through time, in which case such flux has increased by up to an order of magnitude during the last 0.5 Ga.  相似文献   

8.
Age plateaux and isochrons in the 40Ar-39Ar and similar dating techniques can be severely altered by processes changing the geometric distribution of one isotope relative to the other. Age plateaux and isochrons can even be generated entirely as experimental artifacts. Alterations of 40Ar-39Ar plateau ages by recoil redistribution of 39Ar, incorporation of trapped 40Ar and prior 40Ar loss provide significant examples.10% shifts in isotopic ratios are very easily obtained and would result in errors in 40Ar-39Ar plateau ages of 4 AE old samples of ～100 m.y., which is comparable to the age differences which must be resolved to develop early lunar and solar system chronology. The possible occurrence of diffusion artifacts must be evaluated in every case to establish that ages and age differences obtained by stepwise thermal release analyses are real.All studies involving the stepwise thermal extraction of multiple isotopic components may show similar diffusion artifacts. Constant isotopic compositions may be obtained during thermal release which do not represent the actual compositions of sample reservoirs.  相似文献   

9.
Nitrogen and noble gases were measured in samples of a glass inclusion and the surrounding basaltic matrix from the antarctic shergottite EETA 79001. A nitrogen component trapped in the glass, but not present in the matrix, has a δ15N value at least as high as +190‰. Ratios of40Ar/14N and15N/14N in the glass are consistent with dilution of a martian atmospheric component (δ15N = 620 ± 160‰,40Ar/14N= 0.33 ± 0.03) by either terrestrial atmosphere adsorbed on the samples or by indigenous nitrogen from the minerals of the rock. Trapped noble gases in the glass reproduce, within error, the elemental and isotopic compositions measured in Mars' atmosphere by Viking, and are in general agreement with previous measurements except for much lower abundances of neutron-generated krypton and xenon isotopes. The most reasonable explanation at the present time for the noble gas pattern and the isotopically heavy nitrogen is that a sample of martian atmosphere has been trapped in the EETA 79001 glass, and that this meteorite, and thus the shergottites and probably the nakhlites and chassignites as well, originated on Mars.Nitrogen in the non-glassy matrix of EETA 79001 amounts to less than 0.5 ppm and has a spallation-corrected δ15N value in the range 0 to ?20‰; it may reflect indigenous nitrogen in the basalt or a mixture of indigenous and adsorbed terrestrial nitrogen. Spallogenic noble gases yield single-stage exposure ages between 400,000 and 900,000 years, depending on irradiation geometry. Trapped argon may have an unusually low36Ar/38Ar ratio. Trapped krypton, except for a small excess at80Kr, is smoothly mass-fractionated with respect to either terrestrial or chondritic Kr. The trapped xenon composition is consistent with addition of neutron-capture, radiogenic and fissiogenic isotopes to a base composition resembling terrestrial atmospheric Xe. The elemental84Kr/132Xe ratio of 25 is close to the terrestrial value and very different from the chondritic ratio.  相似文献   

10.
Current research efforts to explore and account for the distribution of nitrogen isotope abundances in the ancient and present-day solar wind and in meteorites often require measurement of nitrogen abundances and isotopic compositions in very small samples of rare extraterrestrial materials. Isotopic analysis of ～ 1 μg of N2 is possible with modern techniques of dynamic mass spectrometry, but even this high sensitivity is a limiting factor for certain critical samples. We have utilized a statistically operated mass spectrometer coupled to an ultrahigh vacuum gas extraction and processing system to lower this limit by approximately four orders of magnitude. Quantities of N2 ranging from ～ 100 ng to < 100 pg are measurable with permil to percent precision in isotope ratios. Nitrogen and all noble gases evolved during stepwise combustion of fine-grained matrix material separated from the Allende meteorite have been meausred simultaneously in a pilot experiment using this technique. Isotopically heavy H-Xe (CCF-Xe) and isotopically light N are co-sited in a carbonaceous carrier phase, supporting a nucleosynthetic origin for15N-depleted nitrogen in Allende. The great isotopic uniformity of trapped Ar in all carrier phases indicates that simple, physical mass fractionation in gravitational escape of volatiles from the primitive nebula cannot have played a significant role in generating the nitrogen compositions observed in solar system matter.  相似文献   

11.
The Gd isotopic composition in 19 lunar rock and soil samples from three Apollo sites is reported. The analytical techniques and the high precision mass spectrometric measurements are discussed. Enrichments in158GdO/157GdO due to neutron capture range up to 0.75%. Integrated ‘thermal’ neutron fluxes derived from the isotopic anomalies of Gd are compared with spallation Kr data from aliquot samples to construct a model which gives both average cosmic-ray irradiation depths and effective neutron exposure ages (Tn) for some rocks. In the case of rock 12053, this yields an average sample location of ∼300 g/cm2 below the lunar surface and an effective irradiation age of ∼230 my, compared to 99 my obtained by the81Kr-Kr method. Rock 14310 is the first lunar sample where Kr anomalies due to resonance neutron capture in Br are observed. A81Kr-Kr exposure age of 262 ± 7 my is calculated for this rock.  相似文献   

12.
The isotopic composition of xenon from CO2 gas from the Bueyeros Field, Harding County, New Mexico (U.S.A.) has been redetermined in a brand new mass spectrometer and sample system into which no previous sample had ever been inserted except for small calibration samples of air. The large excess found for129Xe agrees perfectly with earlier work on this sample and thus can in no way be attributed to meteoritic contamination of the measuring systems. An important constraint on the thermal history of the Earth implied by this result is valid as far as the experimental observations are concerned.  相似文献   

13.
Pristine samples from the lunar highlands potentially offer important information bearing on the nature of early crustal development on all the terrestrial planets. One apparently unique sample of this group of lunar crustal rocks, the feldspathic lherzolite 67667, was studied utilizing the Sm-Nd radiometric system in an attempt to define its age and the implications of that age for the evolution of the lunar highlands. Data for 67667 precisely define an isochron corresponding to an age of 4.18±0.07 AE. The observed lack of disturbance of the Sm-Nd system of this sample may suggest that this time marks its crystallization at shallow depth in the lunar crust. However, the possibility that this age, as well as those of other highland rocks, indicate the time of their impact-induced excavation from regions deep enough in the lunar crust to allow subsolidus isotopic equilibrium to be produced or maintained between their constituent minerals is also considered. Taken together, bulk rock Sm-Nd data for four “high-Mg” rocks, including 67667, indicate that the chemical characteristics of all their source materials were established 4.33±0.08 AE ago and were intimately associated with the parent materials of KREEP. This finding provides more support for the concept of a large-scale differentiation episode early in lunar history. The possible roles of the crystallization of a global magma ocean, endogenous igneous activity, and of planetesimal impact, in producing the observed geochemical and chronological aspects of lunar highland rocks are discussed.  相似文献   

14.
The amount of trapped inert gases present in rock 66095, as well as the elemental and isotopic composition of these gases can be explained by “contamination” of this rock - on the lunar surface - with as little as 0.2% of fines There is no compelling evidence that these gases come from the impact of a comet or a carbonaceous meteorite on the Moon, or that they represent genuine primordial lunar gas.The21Ne radiation age of 66095 is (1.1 ± 0.5) × 106yr, which strongly suggests that this rock was excavated by the South Ray Crater event.  相似文献   

15.
Apollo 15 and 16 subsatellite measurements of lunar surface magnetic fields by the electron reflection method are summarized. Patches of strong surface fields ranging from less than 14° to tens of degrees in size are found distributed over the lunar surface, but in general no obvious correlation is observed between field anomalies and surface geology. In lunar mare regions a positive statistical correlation is found between the surface field strength and the geologic age of the surface as determined from crater erosion studies. However, there is a lack of correlation of surface field with impact craters in the mare, implying that mare do not have a strong large-scale uniform magnetization as might be expected from an ancient lunar dynamo. This lack of correlation also indicates that mare impact processes do not generate strong magnetization coherent over ～ 10 km scale size. In the lunar highlands fields of >100 nT are found in a region of order 10 km wide and >300 km long centered on and paralleling the long linear rille, Rima Sirsalis. These fields imply that the rille has a strong magnetization (>5 × 10?6 gauss cm3 gm?1 associated with it, either in the form of intrusive, magnetized rock or as a gap in a uniformly magnetic layer of rock. However, a survey of seven lunar farside magnetic anomalies observed by the Apollo 16 subsatellite suggests a correlation with inner ejecta material from large impact basins. The implications of these results for the origin of lunar magnetism are discussed.  相似文献   

16.
We report the results of thermal-release argon analyses of neutron-irradiated green glass spherules separated from lunar sample 15426. The gas-retention age, as determined by the40Ar39Ar method, is (3.38 ± 0.06) X 109yr. This age is similar to those of local mare basalts and distinct from the ages of Appenine Front samples recovered from the same region as 15426. Trapped argon is present in near-surface regions of the spherules, and can be resolved into at least two components requiring separate origins, a shallow (0.1 μ) component with40Ar/39Ar > 30, and a deeper (2 μ) component with 40Ar/36Ar= 2.9. The ratio of trapped40Ar to36Ar is higher than found in any lunar soil and suggests that the trapped gas was implanted early in the spherules' history. The cosmic-ray exposure age is 300 my.  相似文献   

17.
207Pb/206Pb of “low temperature sited” (LTS) lead as reported by Silver (1975) increases with40Ar/36Ar of trapped argon in thirteen samples from lunar maria. This strongly supports an earlier conclusion by (1972) that large (40Ar/36Ar)T ratios represent ancient regolith records, and provides a rough (40Ar/36Ar)T timescale.The erasure of (40Ar/36Ar)T records in surface soils by the excavation of deep-seated, “fresh” bedrock and by erosion of particle surfaces via ion sputtering must have been counteracted by conserving processes in the regolith. Two such processes are relatively well understood: agglutinate formation and the excavation and comminution of soil breccias which have preserved an ancient (40Ar/36Ar)T record. The frequency distribution of (40Ar/36Ar)T in 82 “soils” from all Apollo missions suggests a third process, which requires that sizeable “pockets” of ancient regolith materials including soils have survived deep turnover for billions of years.Large-scale mobility of LTS lead throughout all of the regolith does not appear to occur.Inert gas ions with sufficient energy for trapping may have reached the lunar surface more than 3 b.y. ago.The Apollo 11 microbreccias appear to have been formed more than 3 b.y. ago from regoliththen extant on the surface.  相似文献   

18.
An interpretation of previously reported measurements of the Apollo 15/16 alpha-particle spectrometer on the distribution of 222Rn and 210Po across the lunar surface suggests that continuation of these measurements is a method of monitoring current activity on the moon. Since the two isotopes are relatively short-lived with effective half-lives of 3 days and 21 years, respectively, the activity detected has had to have been released during this current epoch. Changes in the rate of lunar emanation can be measured on three different time scales: (1) of a few days or less by detecting 222Rn at discrete sites such as the crater Aristarchus; (2) of a month by measuring 222Rn activity at the sunrise terminator; (3) of a few years by measuring 210Po activity at various locations. These observations could be carried out very effectively from a lunar polar orbiting satellite.  相似文献   

19.
1 INTRODUCTION Watershed restoration efforts have been accelerated in recent years by mandates in the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and increasing pressure from environmental groups (Wagner and Roberts, 1998). To address these mandates, water-quality management plans and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) have been developed for surface waters, such as streams placed on the 303(d) list because of beneficial use impairment. Commonly, much of the degradation of surface…  相似文献   

20.
The lunar crust at the Apollo 16 landing site contains substantial amounts of a “primitive component” in which the ferromagnesian group of elements is concentrated. The composition of this component can be retrieved via an analysis of mixing relationships displayed by lunar breccias. It is found to be a komatiite which is compositionally similar to terrestrial komatiites both in major and minor elements. The komatiite component of the lunar crust is believed to have formed by extensive degrees of melting of the lunar interior at depths greater than were involved in the formation of the lunar magma ocean which was parental to the crust. After formation of the anorthositic crust, it was invaded by extensive flows and intrusions of komatiite magma from these deeper source regions. The komatiites became intimately mixed with the anorthosite by intensive meteoroid impacts about 4.5 b.y. ago, thereby accounting for the observed mixing relationships displayed by the crust. The compositional similarity between lunar and terrestrial komatiites strongly implies a corresponding similarity between the compositions of their source regions in the lunar interior and the Earth's upper mantle. The composition of the lunar interior can be modelled more specifically by combining the komatiite composition with its liquidus olivine composition (as determined experimentally) in proportions chosen so as to produce a cosmochemically acceptable range of Mg/Si ratios for the bulk Moon. Except for higher FeO and lower Na2O, the range of compositions thereby obtained for the bulk moon is very similar to the composition of the Earth's upper mantle.The effects of meteoritic contamination on the abundances of cobalt and nickel in lunar highland breccias were subtracted on the assumption that the contaminating projectiles were chondritic. The cobalt and nickel residuals thereby obtained were found to correlate strongly with the (Mg + Fe) content of the breccias, demonstrating that the Co and Ni are associated with the ferromagnesian component of the breccias and are genuinely indigenous to the Moon. The lunar highland Co and Ni residuals also display striking Ni/Co versus Ni correlations which follow a similar trend to those displayed by terrestrial basalts, picrites and komatiites. The lunar trends provide further decisive evidence of the indigenous nature of the Co and Ni residuals and suggest the operation of extensive fractionation controlled by olivine-liquid equilibria in producing the primitive component of the lunar breccias. Indigenous nickel abundances at the Apollo 14, 15 and 17 sites are much lower than at the Apollo 16 site, although rocks from all sites follow the same Ni/Co versus Ni trends. It is suggested that the primitive component at the Apollo 14, 15 and 17 sites was generally of basaltic composition, in contrast to the komatiitic nature of the Apollo 16 primitive component.  相似文献   

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