Ages of Globally Distributed Lunar Paleoregoliths and Soils from 3.9 Ga to the Present

This study determines the ages of 191 discrete lunar regolith samples from the Apollo, Luna, and meteorite collections. Model closure ages (for lithified breccias) and appearance ages (for unconsolidated soils) are calculated using the trapped 40 Ar and 36 Ar abundances of each sample, determined fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Earth, moon, and planets moon, and planets, 2014-08, Vol.112 (1-4), p.59-71
Main Authors: Fagan, Amy L., Joy, Katherine H., Bogard, Donald D., Kring, David A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Astronomy
Astrophysics and Astroparticles
Breccia
Closures
Collection
Impactors
Landing sites
Lunar regolith
Lunar soil
Lunar surface
Meteors & meteorites
Missions
Moons
Observations and Techniques
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Planetology
Regolith
Soils
Space Exploration and Astronautics
Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
Unconsolidated soils
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Summary:This study determines the ages of 191 discrete lunar regolith samples from the Apollo, Luna, and meteorite collections. Model closure ages (for lithified breccias) and appearance ages (for unconsolidated soils) are calculated using the trapped 40 Ar and 36 Ar abundances of each sample, determined from published Ar data. Model closure ages of regolith breccias span ~3.9 to 0.01 Ga and appearance ages of soils range from ~3.6 to 0.03 Ga; 169 of these ages are published here for the first time, while 22 are recalculated ages. The regolith breccias with the oldest closure ages originate from the ancient highlands and oldest mare surfaces sampled by the Apollo missions. Soils generally have similar ages to each other, regardless of location and collection depth, with most model ages
ISSN:0167-9295
1573-0794
DOI:10.1007/s11038-014-9437-7