Apollo 16 neutron stratigraphy |
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| Authors: | G Price Russ |
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| Institution: | Institute of Earth and Planetary Physics, Dept. of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton ,Canada |
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| Abstract: | The Apollo 16 soils have the largest low energy neutron fluences (up to 1017 n/cm2, E < 0.18eV) yet observed in lunar samples. Variations in the isotopic ratios 158Gd/157Gd and 150Sm/149Sm (up to 1.9% and 2.0% respectively) indicate that the low energy neutron fluence in the Apollo 16 drill stem increases with depth throughout the section sampled. Such a variation implies that accretion has been the dominant regolith “gardening” process at this location. The data may be fit by a model of continuous accretion of pre-irradiated material at a rate of ～70 g/(cm2 · 108yr) or by models involving as few as two slabs of material in which the first slab could have been deposited as long as 109 yr ago.The ratio of the number of neutrons captured per atom by Sm to the number captured per atom by Gd is lower than in previously measured lunar samples, which implies a lower energy neutron spectrum at this site. The variation of this ratio with chemical composition is qualitatively similar to that predicted by Lingenfelter, Canfield and Hampel.Variations are observed in the ratio 152Gd/160Gd which are fluence correlated and probably result from neutron capture by151Eu. |
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