distinguishing high alumina mare basalts using clementine uvvis and lunar prospector grs data mare moscoviense and mare nectaris 1 high alumina ha mare basalts are a unique group of the lunar sample collection sample geochemistry indicates that these basalts are derived from sources composed of late stage cumulates from the lunar magma ocean lmo their aluminous nature suggests their sources contained significant plagioclase which has implications regarding the efficiency of plagioclase separation from earlier forming mafic cumulates in the lmo to form the anorthositic lunar crust and hence the heterogeneity of the lunar mantle the apollo and luna missions sampled ha basalts from four different locations that are separated by 80 equatorial degrees 2400 km radiometric age dating of these samples demonstrates aluminous basaltic volcanism spanned over 1 billion years suggesting ha basalts may be more prevalent on the moon than implied by the sample population knowing their global occurrence would ultimately enhance our understanding of lunar evolution aluminous mare basalts occupy a unique location in th feo compositional space that suggests they can be identified using global remote sensing data of the moon we present our approach for distinguishing exposures of ha basalts using clementine ultraviolet visible infrared uvvis and lunar prospector gamma ray spectrometer lp grs data with constraints based on the feo tio2 and th abundances of apollo and luna ha samples we identified 34 regions of interest rois where ha basalts could be a prominent component of the lunar surface by analyzing the rims and proximal ejecta from small impacts 0 4 4 km in diameter into the mare surface we characterized compositionally distinct basaltic units that make up the mare and thus determined which units represent ha basalt lavas the results were used to generate maps that depict discrete mare units and classify their general basalt type here we focus on two rois mare moscoviense and mare nectaris mare moscoviense is composed of four basaltic units two of which are ha candidates clementine uvvis data of mare nectaris show evidence of up to three mare basalt units one is the remnants of a mid ti unit that capped earlier low ti flows the majority of the basin is filled by a compositionally indistinguishable low fe low ti basalt however spectral profiles suggest there are two units regardless the units both fit the criteria for a ha basalt

constraint on subsurface structures beneath reiner gamma on the moon using the kaguya lunar radar sounder abstract reiner gamma is a sinuous feature in oceanus procellarum it has a higher reflectance of the visible wavelength than the surrounding flat mare basalt and displays a high crustal magnetic field previous studies relating to the origin of reiner gamma have provided contradictory depths of magnetic source bodies in the lunar crust as either shallow or deep if a shallow ejecta layer existed beneath the reiner gamma formation a subsurface lithological boundary between the denser mare basalt and the less dense ejecta blanket would be expected this study examines subsurface stratifications using the lunar radar sounder lrs onboard the kaguya spacecraft taking into account the lrs determined dielectric constants the influence of surface clutter and the energy loss of the lrs radar pulses in the high frequency band 5 mhz no evidence was found of subsurface boundaries down to a depth of 1000 m at reiner gamma given the lrs range resolution of 75 m the source of the magnetic anomaly is considered to be either strongly magnetized thin breccia layers at depths shallower than 75 m or less magnetized thick layers at depths deeper than 1000 m

high resolution mapping of tio2 abundances on the moon using the hubble space telescope 1 samples of the lunar regolith returned by apollo astronauts show large variations 0 to 10 wt in tio2 abundance indicating complex compositional zonation within the lunar mantle a long held goal of the lunar science community is the accurate determination of tio2 abundances on the lunar surface through remote sensing methods to date only limited progress has been made in this area using spacecraft spectral measurements acquired in visible through near infrared wavelengths here we show that variations in the ratios of ultraviolet uv to visible vis reflectances in images taken by the hubble space telescope indicate a strong correlation with tio2 abundances determined from returned samples at the apollo 17 landing site and little correlation with the maturity of lunar soils these new findings imply that uv vis observations may lead to an alternate and improved method of remotely mapping tio2 bearing materials probably as ilmenite across the lunar surface and enable more refined studies of lunar crustal composition surface volcanism and subsurface magma evolution processes additionally accurate identification and quantification of tio2 rich deposits serves to guide future human exploration of the moon

new results and implications for lunar crustal iron distribution using sensor data fusion techniques remote measurements of the moon have provided iron maps and thus essential constraints for models of lunar crustal formation and mare basalt petrogenesis a bulk crustal iron map was produced for the equatorial region from apollo gamma ray agr spectrometer measurements and a global iron variation map from recent clementine spectral reflectance csr measurements both iron maps show bimodal distribution but have significantly different peak values and variations in this paper csr data have been recalibrated to pyroxene in lunar landing site soils a residual iron map is derived from the difference between agr bulk and recalibrated csr pyroxene iron abundances the most likely interpretation is that the residual represents ferrous iron in olivine this residual iron is anticorrelated to basin age with older basins containing less olivine suggesting segregation of basin basalt sources from a progressively fractionating underlying source region at the time of basin formation results presented here provide a quantitative basis for 1 establishing the relationship between direct geochemical gamma ray x ray and mineralogical near ir remote sensing data sets using sensor data fusion techniques to allow 2 simultaneous determination of elemental and mineralogical component distribution on remote targets and 3 meaningful interpretation of orbital and ground based spectral reflectance measurements when calibrated data from the lunar prospector mission are available mapping of bulk crustal iron and iron bearing soil components will be possible for the entire moon similar analyses for data from the near earth asteroid rendezvous near mission to asteroid 433 eros will constrain models of asteroid formation

feldspathic lunar meteorites pecora escarpment 02007 and dhofar 489 contamination of the surface of the lunar highlands by post basin impacts abstract pca pecora escarpment 02007 and dhofar 489 are both meteorites from the feldspathic highlands of the moon pca 02007 is a feldspathic breccia consisting of lithified regolith from the lunar surface it has concentrations of both incompatible and siderophile elements that are at the high end of the ranges for feldspathic lunar meteorites dhofar 489 is a feldspathic breccia composed mainly of impact melted material from an unknown depth beneath the regolith concentrations of incompatible and siderophile elements are the lowest among brecciated lunar meteorites among 19 known feldspathic lunar meteorites all of which presumably originate from random locations in the highlands concentrations of incompatible elements like sm and th tend to increase with those of siderophile elements like ir feldspathic meteorites with high concentrations of both suites of elements are usually regolith breccias iridium derives mainly from micrometeorites that accumulate in the regolith with duration of surface exposure micrometeorites have low concentrations of incompatible elements however so the correlation must reflect a three component system we postulate that the correlation between sm and ir occurs because the surface of the feldspathic highlands terrane has become increasingly contaminated with time in sm rich material from the procellarum kreep terrane that has been redistributed across the lunar surface by impacts of moderate sized post basin impacts the most sm rich regolith breccias among feldspathic lunar meteorites are about 3 enriched compared to the most sm poor breccias but this level of enrichment requires only a few percent sm rich material typical of the procellarum kreep terrane the meteorite data suggest that nowhere in the feldspathic highlands are the concentrations of k rare earths and th measured by the lunar prospector mission at the surface representative of the underlying bedrock all surfaces covered by old regolith as opposed to fresh ejecta are at least slightly contaminated dhofar 489 is one of 15 paired lunar meteorite stones from oman total mass of meteorite 1037 g on the basis of its unusually high mg fe ratio the meteorite is likely to have originated from northern feldspathic highlands

impact glasses from the apollo 14 landing site and implications for regional geology 1 lunar impact glasses possess the unmodified refractory element ratios of the original fused target materials at the sites of impacts these target materials are regolith developed on different terrains and local rock types almost 800 glasses from the apollo 14 landing site have been analyzed by electron microprobe in this study these glasses show significant variation and hint at the existence of multiple terrains of differing compositions near the landing site to test this idea we have used clementine color image data to construct iron and titanium maps from which a petrologic map in an elemental system analogous to the sample database was made this map shows the regional provenance of apollo 14 samples and suggests that the highlands in the fra mauro region of the moon consist of a potassium rare earth element and phosphorus kreep rich basaltic debris layer that overlies a more feldspathic terrain in some areas this mapping effort demonstrates the efficacy of using clementine image data to place lunar sample information into a regional and ultimately global context lunar impact glasses and orbital data can provide geochemical constraints on the local and regional geology of the moon

the lunar regolith chemistry mineralogy and petrology the lunar regolith a several meter thick layer of unconsolidated debris forms the interface between the moon and its space environment the regolith forms from lithic sources by the destructional processes of comminution and the constructional processes of agglutinate formation in this manner a steady state soil can develop and will remain in a type of dynamic equilibrium until the system is disturbed by burial or mixing with new soil mixing takes place mainly on a local scale vertically through meters and horizontally over several kilometers lateral transport is a relatively inefficient process and therefore most of the lunar soil components were derived locally there is no evidence for preferential transport of the finer soil fractions relative to the coarser fractions the truly exotic derived at distances of tens of kilometers component is generally in low abundance 1 therefore remotely sensed data should provide a reasonably accurate picture of bedrock geology the chemical composition of the regolith varies with grain size the 10 m fraction is chemically fractionated from the bulk soil in most cases the 10 m fraction is enriched in al2o3 cao na2o k2o light rare earth elements and th and depleted in mgo feo mno and sc these systematics are largely a result of simple comminution with feldspar and friable mesostasis from local source rocks concentrating in the finest fraction there is evidence that agglutinate glass forms preferentially by fusion of the finest soil fractions therefore agglutinate glass like the 10 m soil fraction appears to be fractionated from bulk soil compositions highland soils are distinct from mare soils both chemically and petrologically soil samples collected near mare highland contacts are mixtures of the two lithologies mineral chemical systematics of monomineralic fragments in the lunar soil provide important clues to soil provenance they can in some cases sort out the highland mare contributions and in special cases can even further pinpoint a lithic source in theory lunar regolith cores can serve as solar probes recording the sun s activity over billions of years in practice this has generally not been the case the formation and evolution of most cores is still poorly understood for most we have not established how they formed for example how many depositional and erosional events were involved what the time span involved in the accretion of the sampled soil column was and how long that soil column has remained in situ without this information it is difficult if not impossible to read the sun s record more interdisciplinary studies on cores must be carried out before they can be used as solar probes

taphonomy of vertebrate assemblages from the paleogene of northwestern wyoming and the neogene of northern pakistan abstract we compare the taphonomy of vertebrate assemblages from two long continental records the early paleogene of the bighorn basin wyoming and the neogene siwalik sequence of northern pakistan both sequences contain a similar array of fluvial facies and the abundance of these facies differs among formations we document environments of preservation of vertebrate localities over time to determine comparability of fossil assemblages within and between sequences changes in sample size and species richness are noted to reveal potential sampling effects on patterns of faunal turnover preservational history determined the environment sample size quality of specimens taxonomic composition and spatial and temporal resolution of fossil assemblages and thereby the quality of the fossil record and its suitability for further analyses in both sequences changes in prevailing taphonomic processes reflect changes in lithofacies and habitat distribution correlated changes are found in fossil productivity species richness and faunal composition both sequences contain some episodes of apparent faunal change in which appearances and disappearances of rare taxa can be attributed principally to changes in sample size the paleogene record has high taxonomic resolution i e to genus or species for most mammalian fossil remains temporal and spatial averaging of paleogene fossil assemblages changes with lithofacies the neogene record has higher taxonomic resolution for remains of small mammals different preservational circumstances impose different constraints on paleocological and evolutionary analyses the best opportunities for paleocommunity reconstruction are provided by high taxonomic resolution large samples nd varied environments of preservation these circumstances are found in limited portions of each record the best opportunities for documenting evolution within lineages and species replacement patterns are provided by high taxonomic resolution high temporal resolution and consistent preservational context these taphonomic attributes pertain to the more common paleogene mammals particularly from the rich paleosol localities of the willwood formation and to the more common neogene small mammals from abandoned channel fills of the siwalik record

application of mwp to tsunami earthquake tsunami earthquake produces anomalously strong tsunamis for their surface wave magnitude to issue accurate early tsunami warnings for tsunami earthquakes it is critical to identify them as tsunamigenic events as early as possible here we show that a pulse width of p wave which we use to calculate broadband moment magnitude mwp gives accurate estimates of source duration time we find that we may identify 1992 nicaragua earthquake as a possible tsunamigenic earthquake by using a combination of both mwp and the source duration our result suggests that the combination of mwp and the source duration will provide an effective tool to issue early tsunami warnings even for tsunami earthquakes which have anomalously long source duration

ti distribution in grain size fractions of apollo soils 10084 and 71501 abstract much work has been devoted to the correlation between the remotely sensed uv vis slope and the tio2 concentration of the lunar surface and this correlation has been used to map the lunar surface tio2 distributions using data obtained from various missions however additional work is needed to fully evaluate the uv vis tio2 correlation such work would help ongoing efforts to improve tio2 mapping e g as currently underway with lroc wide angle camera wac data to evaluate the uv vis tio2 correlation we are investigating soil petrographic factors e g modal abundances of ti bearing minerals lithic and glass hosts ilmenite morphology grain size and maturity that may influence the spectra this ground truth approach will be useful in comparing between sample information and laboratory spectra to investigate the influence of petrographic factors on the spectra in this work we report the quantitative results of a systematic laboratory investigation of three size fractions 210 100 m 100 48 m 48 20 m of two high ti lunar soils 10084 and 71501 using a combined digital imaging backscattered electron image and x ray maps method for each size fraction the results include 1 the modal abundances for single phase minerals and lithologic components 2 the ti distributions among ti host components and 3 the shape of ilmenite grains we compile and compare the data together for the three size fractions of the two high ti soils with different maturities as well as data from previous studies future work will include the investigation of finer size fractions

lower eocene alluvial paleosols willwood formation northwest wyoming u s a and their significance for paleoecology paleoclimatology and basin analysis abstract the lower eocene willwood formation of northwest wyoming is a 700 m thick accumulation of alluvial floodplain and channel mudstones and sandstones nearly all of which show paleopedogenic modifications pedogenesis of willwood sandstones is indicated by taproot and vertebrate and invertebrate bioturbation early local cementation by calcium carbonate and thin illuviation cutans on clastic grains pedogenesis in willwood mudstones is indicated by plant bioturbation insect and other invertebrate burrow casts and lebensspuren free iron aluminum and manganese mobilization including hydromorphic gleying sesquioxide and calcareous glaebule formation in lower parts of the solum presence of clay rich and organic carbon rich zones and well differentiated epipedons and albic and spodic horizons probable a horizons are also locally well developed occurrence of variegated paleosol units in thick floodplain mudstone deposits and their association with thin lenticular and unconnected fluvial sandstones in the willwood formation of the central and southeast bighorn basin suggest that these soils formed during times of rapid sediment accumulation the tabular geometry and lateral persistence of soil units as well as the absence of catenization indicate that willwood floodplains were broad and essentially featureless all willwood paleosols were developed on alluvial parent materials and are complex in that b horizons of younger paleosols were commonly superimposed upon and mask properties of suspected a and b horizons of the next older paleosols the soils appear to be wet varieties of the spodosol and entisol groups aquods and ferrods and aquents respectively though thick superposed and less mottled red purple and yellow paleosols resemble some ultisols most willwood paleosols resemble warm temperate to subtropical alluvial soils that form today under alternating wet and dry conditions and or fluctuating water tables the up section decrease in frequency of gley mottles increase in numerical proportion and thickness of red versus orange coloration and increase in abundance of calcrete glaebules indicate better drained soils and probably drier climate in late willwood time this drying is believed to be related to creation of rain shadows and spacing of rainfall but not necessarily decrease in absolute rainfall due to progressive tectonic structural elevation of the mountainous margins of the bighorn basin

mammalian generic diversity and turnover in the late paleocene and early eocene of the bighorn and crazy mountains basins wyoming and montana usa abstract patterns of mammalian generic turnover richness and faunal composition were investigated for faunas from 17 biostratigraphic zones in middle paleocene through early eocene deposits of the bighorn and clarks fork basins of northern wyoming and the crazy mountains basin of south central montana significance of turnover was evaluated 1 by comparison of observed turnover to expected turnover calculated from the multiple regression of turnover on zone duration and generic richness and 2 by comparison of observed turnover to a bootstrapped turnover distribution patterns of turnover and richness also were assessed in light of relative sampling quality of each faunal zone the analysis identified four intervals of significant faunal change the torrejonian tiffanian transition the late tiffanian the earliest wasatchian and the middle to late wasatchian the first interval was characterized by a high number of last occurrences in the latest torrejonian resulting in a decrease in standing generic richness in the earliest tiffanian but no major changes in ordinal composition during the next interval of significant turnover the late tiffanian higher than expected first occurrences resulted in an increase in standing richness and a change in faunal composition most probably reflecting the immigration of taxa from outside north america the third and most dramatic interval of significant generic turnover took place in the earliest wasatchian and was distinguished by a high number of first occurrences but relatively few last occurrences this led to a marked increase in generic richness a pattern similar to that for the early wasatchian of north america as a whole the major change in faunal composition as in the late tiffanian was largely composed of immigrants from other continents the pattern of faunal change during the early wasatchian of the bighorn basin along with evidence for global warming at the paleocene eocene boundary supports previous interpretations associating this episode in mammalian evolution with the opening of high latitude intercontinental dispersal routes during the fourth interval of interest the middle to late wasatchian the bighorn basin fossil record shows a drop in generic richness this differs from the overall north american pattern and may be in part an artifact of still inadequate sampling for the latest part of the stratigraphic sequence in the bighorn basin

mapping iron in the lunar mare an improved approach 1 previous methods for mapping iron lucey et al 1995 1998 2000a give inconsistent results in terms of suppressing the effects of maturity making it difficult to distinguish true units of contrasting iron from regions that simply show the residual effects of incomplete separation of maturity these methods rely on an assumption that materials of similar iron content but varying maturity form radial trends on a plot of vis reflectance versus nir vis ratio recently the assumption of radial behavior of maturity trends in mare regions has been called into question by staid and pieters 2000 they observed trends in the mare that appeared more parallel in nature in this work we study nearly 10 000 craters in six mare regions and model the effects of maturity with radiative transfer theory to quantify and better understand the spectral behavior of maturity variations in the mare we confirm that the maturity trends in mare regions are more parallel than radial and we exploit this fact to develop a new algorithm for determination of iron content in mare regions this new mare iron algorithm better compensates for maturity than previous methods and uncertainties due to maturity variations are less than 0 5 wt feo absolute uncertainties are similar to previous algorithms 1 5 wt feo results from this work provide the ability to detect iron anomalies in the ejecta of craters and as a result more confidently map vertical stratigraphy in the lunar mare in terms of iron composition

a real time model of the seasonal temperature of lunar polar region and data validation a small tilt in the spin axis of the moon over the ecliptic plane causes seasonal incidence variation of solar illumination and especially causes significant temperature difference at the polar region in this article following the position of the subsolar point the real time model of solar illumination incidence over the moon polar region is developed based on this model with solving the 1 d heat conduction equation the seasonal temperature of the lunar surface is obtained and is in agreement with the diviner infrared ir data meanwhile using the fluctuation dissipation theorem and the wentzel kramers brillouin wkb approach for lunar regolith media the seasonal microwave mw brightness temperature tb is also obtained and validated by chang e 2 ce 2 37 ghz tb data these data also show that the lunar surface temperature and the mw tb even in the permanent shaded region psr undergo seasonal variation as well it might be due to the seasonal thermal radiation on the topographic psr coming from the sunlit crater walls caused by seasonal temperature variation the diviner ir data show that the highest temperature in the hermite a crater at the north polar psr can reach 109 k in summer

going south latitudinal change in mammalian biodiversity in miocene eurasia for palaeontologists the challenge is to reconstruct biodiversity patterns of the past mammal richness in grids is used to assess the stability of biodiversity hotspots and document changes over time in europe for mammal neogene units 3 to 11 19 5 to 7 6 ma early to late miocene the maps clearly show the patchiness of the fossil record as the miocene was an eventful epoch with severe environmental changes europe slowly became drier and more seasonal both in temperature and precipitation from the early to middle miocene an area of high biodiversity moved from higher to lower latitudes culminating in one of the most remarkable hotspots in the history of mammals the early late miocene vallesian mammal stage faunas from the valles penedes catalonia spain remarkably the surrounding areas did not exhibit similar richness during the subsequent vallesian turnover event 9 7 ma the large and small mammal distribution became more equitable and the hotspots less prominent the richest area was found in the periphery of the humid miocene ecosystem which experienced species influx from the drier south the southward shift was a result of the expansion of the humid area with subsequent closed environments and related mixing of ecosystems coming to a halt in the late miocene when all of europe became equally open

a revised algorithm for calculating tio2 from clementine uvvis data a synthesis of rock soil and remotely sensed tio2 concentrations 1 investigating mare basalt compositions at both the sample and remote sensing level for the apollo and luna mare sites reveals the need for a more complex regression procedure than previously proposed in order to extract accurate tio2 concentrations from clementine spectral reflectance csr data the tio2 algorithm of lucey and coworkers is modified by using two different sets of regression parameters to relate measured regolith compositions from sampling locations to the csr properties of these sites one regression trend fits the majority of apollo data and the second regression is a fit to the apollo 11 luna 16 and luna 24 data which were considered to be anomalous in previous tio2 calibrations these three sites have unusually low albedo compared to other mare landing sites and some 32 of nearside mare regions appear to share this characteristic possible reasons for these differences related to proximity of the other sites to mare highland boundaries are discussed using the dual regression method we find 1 that tio2 concentrations calculated for the basaltic landing sites faithfully reproduce a bimodal distribution as seen in the sample data 2 that when coupled with the effects of other thermal neutron absorbers ti concentrations are more consistent with observed epithermal to thermal neutron flux ratios than are previous clementine based derivations of tio2 for basaltic regions and 3 that basalts of intermediate tio2 concentrations occur most frequently in the oceanus procellarum region and that these intermediate concentrations appear to be inherent to the flows underlying the regolith and presumably to the basalt source regions

remote sensing studies of the lomonosov fleming region of the moon 1 lomonosov fleming is a 620 km pre nectarian impact basin centered at 19 n 105 e clementine multispectral images and a variety of spacecraft photographs were used to investigate the composition and origin of geologic units in the region mare basalt deposits in the lomonosov fleming region are small and exhibit varying degrees of highlands contamination four previously unrecognized dark mantle deposits of probable pyroclastic origin were identified and mapped a major expanse of cryptomare was mapped in and around the lomonosov fleming basin spectral and chemical data obtained for dark haloed craters dhc established that these impact craters excavated mare basalt from beneath higher albedo highlands rich surface units the buried basalts exposed by dhcs in the region exhibit a variety of compositions which range from very low titanium basalt to intermediate tio2 mare basalt nectarian aged units with subjacent cryptomare are much more extensive than imbrian aged deposits with underlying basalt at least some of the buried mare basalts in the region may have been emplaced during pre nectarian time while both impact basins and craters played a role in cryptomare formation by transporting highlands material to mare surfaces the evidence indicates that most of the cryptomare inside the basin are of the distal basin ejecta type the enhanced feo and tio2 abundances exhibited by these cryptomare surfaces usually light plains units demonstrate that ballistic erosion and sedimentation played an important role in their formation

paleoecology of an early eocene mammalian fauna from paleosols in the clarks fork basin northwestern wyoming u s a winkler d a 1983 paleoecology of an early eocene mammalian fauna from paleosols in the clarks fork basin northwestern wyoming u s a palaeogeogr palaeoclimmatol palaeoecol 43 261 298 the paleoecology and depositional history of an early eocene vertebrate assemblage dominated by small mammals is analyzed at a richly fossiliferous locality in the willwood formation northwestern wyoming systematic surface sampling using a quadrat net screen washing and quarrying of fresh sediment show that all vertebrate material in these fluvial deposits is contained in dark gray mudstones representing the a horizons of paleosols seven such paleosols occur in 22 m of stratigraphic section the fauna includes 34 species of mammals and also birds reptiles amphibians fishes and gastropods all vertebrate fossil material is fragmented but it shows no evidence of transportation or current sorting surface weathering and possibly carnivore activity are responsible for the fragmentation and for an overabundance of dense and compact skeletal elements detailed surface collections were made to obtain multiple samples from the different bone beds paleosols principle component analysis shows that differences in the type and abundance of fossils from the various collecting areas are related to differences between contained bone beds not differences along single bone beds one paleosol has a red b horizon and six have an orange b horizon the gray over red colored paleosol is faunally distinct from gray over orange paleosols it contains the only specimens of two large archaic mammals and no very small mammalian taxa cluster analysis on the occurrence of vertebrate taxa is used to define subsets of the fauna that may represent animals living in different habitats separate clusters are formed by a group of the most common terrestrial herbivorous mammals and the crocodilian allognathosuchus and by a group of small possibly arboreal herbivores and carnivores the relative abundance of each mammalian species was initially calculated from a sample representing a minimum of 300 individual animals collected from the surface the surface sample is dominated by mammals that are medium sized for the fauna screen washing yields a greater relative abundance of very small mammals than was found on the surface this indicates that the surface sample is biased against small forms corrected relative abundances based on both surface and washing samples show that the fauna is dominated numerically by very small mammals one multituberculate species and several insectivores screen washing of fresh matrix is the best means of sampling a locality for paleoecological purposes

lunar surface geochemistry global concentrations of th k and feo as derived from lunar prospector and clementine data abstract accurate estimates of global concentrations of th k and feo have an important bearing on understanding the bulk chemistry and geologic evolution of the moon we present empirical ground truth calibrations transformations for lunar prospector gamma ray spectrometer data k and th and a modified algorithm for deriving feo concentrations from clementine spectral reflectance data that incorporates an adjustment for tio 2 content the average composition of soil samples for individual landing sites is used as ground truth for remotely sensed data among the apollo and luna sites apollo 12 and 14 provide controls for the incompatible element rich compositions apollo 16 and luna 20 provide controls for the feldspathic and incompatible element poor compositions and apollo 11 15 and 17 and luna 16 and 24 provide controls for fe rich compositions in addition to these apollo and luna sample data we include the composition of the feldspathic lunar meteorites as a proxy for the northern farside highlands to extend the range of the calibration points thus providing an additional anorthositic end member composition these empirical ground truth calibrations for lunar prospector th and k provide self consistency between the existing derived data and lunar sample data clementine spectral reflectance data are used to construct a tio 2 sensitive feo calibration that yields higher feo concentrations in areas of high fe low ti mare basalt rich surfaces than previous feo algorithms the data set so derived is consistent with known sample compositions and regolith mixing relationships

real time seismic warning with a two station subarray one of the most basic problems in seismology is earthquake location in particular the ability to quickly locate a large potentially devastating earthquake is of fundamental importance in a real time warning system where speed is a key factor in determining the level of success of such systems we have developed a simple method that uses only the two earliest p wave arrival times in a seismic array assuming a simple velocity model these arrivals are used to construct a hyperbolic curve on which the approximate epicenter of the earthquake is expected to lie epicentral location along this hyperbola is further constrained by using the fact that the p waves arriving at the other stations in the array are not first arrivals when applied to p wave seismic data from the hector mine earthquake in california and a smaller event in the central united states model results show agreement with actual earthquake locations although there is an inherent uncertainty in the subarray method of locating large earthquakes this may be an acceptable trade off in an early warning system in view of the time a few to tens of seconds saved by not waiting for other p arrivals whereas the main goal of this report is to present the location method we also show that the station closest to the hector mine earthquake had recorded about 0 3 and 1 mm of ground motion within 2 and 3 sec respectively of the arrival of the p waves thus indicating that a large event had occurred manuscript received 18 september 2003

the lunar rayed crater population characteristics of the spatial distribution and ray retention abstract the global statistics for young impact craters on the moon is used to unravel potential spatial asymmetries that may have been introduced by the particular orbital configuration of a synchronously rotating satellite only craters that exhibit bright ejecta rays extending for several crater radii were considered in this study this crater population is younger than about 750 ma the shape of the crater size frequency distribution does not show strong dependence on the target properties mare vs highlands however slightly lower frequencies indicate a shorter retention of the visibility of rays in mare units when their visibility is purely due to immaturity and not due to composition rays of small craters fade away much faster large old rayed craters sustain their visibility longer than the average crater population because of the compositional contrast between rays and mare material and thus obscure the cratering record when investigated for spatial variations using the existence of rays purely based on optical maturity instead of visibility as marker horizon for the copernican eratosthenian boundary suggests a shift from 1 1 ga to 750 ma the spatial distribution of lunar rayed craters namely the latitudinal and longitudinal frequency variations does not agree with previous analytical and numerical studies although there is an apparent hemispherical asymmetry centred close to the apex the density distribution is patchy and no predicted spatial pattern could be confirmed spatial distribution corrections accounting for the lower frequencies in the mare areas did not result in a better agreement with the analytical estimates density variations are less than 15 over vast parts of the lunar surface and the uncertainties for absolute surface ages are similar however variations of up to 50 are found even for the more numerous small craters these extreme values are located at high latitudes a combination of crater forming projectile flux distribution and micrometeorite bombardment which acts on maturation of the ray systems could prove as an explanation for the contradicting observed rayed crater distribution an analysis of the older craters is more challenging on the moon because earlier geological processes complicate the setting and the orbital configuration of the moon earth sun projectile system altered with time

patterns of faunal turnover and diversity in the neogene siwaliks of northern pakistan abstract the fluvial neogene siwalik formations of northern pakistan contain a long and richly fossiliferous sequence of terrestrial vertebrate faunas in which patterns of faunal turnover and changes in diversity can be documented and analyzed for intervals having durations of 0 5 m y the complete sequence extends from circa 18 5 to 1 ma but the part between 18 5 and 5 5 ma is best sampled and most intervals within it are well represented thirteen orders of siwalik mammals have been identified with well sampled intervals having 50 or more species most siwalik mammals however are either rodents or artiodactyls bovids are the most common and most speciose of the larger mammals while murid and cricetid rodents dominate the small mammal assemblages between 18 5 and 5 5 ma species diversity varied considerably among artiodactyls and rodents the number of species first increased between 15 and 13 ma and then fell data on stratigraphic ranges of rodents and artiodactyls show that faunal change in the siwaliks was episodic occurring during short intervals with high turnover followed by longer periods with considerably less change maxima of first appearances occurred at approximately 13 5 and 8 5 ma while maxima of last occurrences were at 12 5 and 8 0 ma some of the observed faunal events can be correlated to climatic and environmental changes the middle miocene diversification occurred during a period of global cooling while the latest miocene decline in diversity and increased turnover accompanied oxygen and carbon isotopic changes that correlate to globally increasing seasonality and aridity other correlations are ambiguous the marked decrease in diversity and the major turnover events between 13 and 8 ma do not correspond to known local or global events the neogene siwaliks and paleogene bighorn crazy mountains sequence in wyoming and montana share many similarities they have equivalent levels of temporal resolution and similar levels of completeness of their fossil records siwalik ordinal abundance and diversity patterns differ markedly from those of the paleogene but generic and probably species diversity was approximately the same although the siwalik faunas may have been slightly less diverse over time changes in diversity were of comparable magnitude with monotonic trends persisting for more than 5 million years the magnitude of faunal turnover was also similar ranging from less than half to 3 5 times that expected in both sequences faunal change appears to have been episodic with strong pulses between intervals of low turnover the siwaliks in contrast to the paleogene sequence may have had more distinct pulses and longer intervals between pulses neither sequence has peaks of first occurrences coinciding with peaks of last occurrences

iron and titanium abundance and maturity degree distribution on the lunar nearside new digital images of the lunar nearside albedos at 0 42 0 65 0 75 and 0 95 m derived from telescopic data were used to map the abundance and distribution of iron titanium and maturity degree on the lunar nearside developing the approach by p luceyet al 1995 science268 1150 a method of separating contributions of the fe and ti abundance and maturity degree to spectral properties of the lunar surface is presented the main objective of the method is an analysis of the 3d correlation diagram of optical characteristics of regolith material with the aim of choosing a coordinate system providing the best correlations of these characteristics with fe and ti abundance data for the surveyor luna and apollo landing sites and with maturity degree laboratory measurements of lunar samples by e fischer and c pieters e g 1996 j geophys res 101 2225 to find the coordinates a geometrical optics model of light scattering in particulate media enabling to calculate the absorption coefficient from albedo measurements is used an analysis of the correlation diagram feo tio2provides two maps characterizing optical types of the lunar nearside in particular the maps show that the basalts of mare serenitatis and mare tranquillitatis are not widely extended on the lunar nearside the maturity degree parameteris feo was also mapped regions withis feo 50 are young craters surrounded by ray systems whereas the conditionis feo 70 corresponds to regions associated with copernicus ejecta western boundaries of mare tranquillitatis and mare serenitatis and a portion of the south highland the new map of feo distribution on the lunar nearside was used to study a correlation between iron content and distribution of remanent magnetism over the lunar surface the relationship obtained has a reverse behavior the lower the iron content the higher the magnetism

an empirical procedure for rapid magnitude estimation in italy rapid estimates of source parameters are needed for reasons of civil protection in regions where destructive events often occur this information can prevent further damage and casualties a relation between the first seconds of a p wave onset and the local magnitude m l of the earthquake has been developed for the italy region following results obtained in japan and southern california the proposed dominant period estimate has been used in the present work and it gives reliable results from which to evaluate the size of the earthquake the data set we evaluated consists of about 20 000 earthquakes that occurred in italy and were well recorded by the stations of the mednet network the proposed relationship will be one basis for developing and implementing an earthquake early warning system in italy capable of delivering a rapid alert only a few seconds after the occurrence of a potentially destructive earthquake in the area recent extensive improvements of the italian national seismic network together with this new technique will make possible the release of a robust magnitude estimate no later than 10 sec after the occurrence of the earthquake however no data are available for earthquakes with magnitudes m l 6 0 which poses some reliability limitations for the derived relationship in the case of larger earthquakes

time functions of deep earthquakes from broadband and short period stacks to constrain dynamic source properties of deep earthquakes we have systematically constructed broadband time functions of deep earthquakes by stacking and scaling teleseismic p waves from u s national seismic network terrascope and berkeley digital seismic network broadband stations we examined 42 earthquakes with depths from 100 to 660 km that occurred between july 1 1992 and july 31 1995 to directly compare time functions or to group them by size depth or region it is essential to scale them to remove the effect of moment which varies by more than 3 orders of magnitude for these events for each event we also computed short period stacks of p waves recorded by west coast regional arrays the comparison of broadband with short period stacks yields a considerable advantage enabling more reliable measurement of event duration a more accurate estimate of the duration better constrains the scaling procedure to remove the effect of moment producing scaled time functions with both correct timing and amplitude we find only subtle differences in the broadband time function shape with moment indicating successful scaling and minimal effects of attenuation at the periods considered here the average shape of the envelopes of the short period stacks is very similar to the average broadband time function the main variations seen with depth are 1 a mild decrease in duration with increasing depth 2 greater asymmetry in the time functions of intermediate events compared to deep ones and 3 unexpected complexity and late moment release for events between 350 and 550 km with seven of the eight events in that depth interval displaying markedly more complicated time functions with more moment release late in the rupture than most events above or below the first two results are broadly consistent with our previous studies while the third is reported here for the first time the greater complexity between 350 and 550 km suggests greater heterogeneity in the failure process in that depth range

earth based 12 6 cm wavelength radar mapping of the moon new views of impact melt distribution and mare physical properties abstract we present results of a campaign to map much of the moon s near side using the 12 6 cm radar transmitter at arecibo observatory and receivers at the green bank telescope these data have a single look spatial resolution of about 40 m with final maps averaged to an 80 m four look product to reduce image speckle focused processing is used to obtain this high spatial resolution over the entire region illuminated by the arecibo beam the transmitted signal is circularly polarized and we receive reflections in both senses of circular polarization measurements of receiver thermal noise during periods with no lunar echoes allow well calibrated estimates of the circular polarization ratio cpr and the four element stokes vector radiometric calibration to values of the backscatter coefficient is ongoing radar backscatter data for the moon provide information on regolith dielectric and physical properties with particular sensitivity to ilmenite content and surface or buried rocks with diameter of about one tenth the radar wavelength and larger average 12 6 cm circular polarization ratio cpr values for low to moderate tio 2 mare basalt deposits are similar to those of rough terrestrial lava flows we attribute these high values to abundant few centimeter diameter rocks from small impacts and a significant component of subsurface volume scattering an outflow deposit inferred to be impact melt from glushko crater has cpr values near unity at 12 6 cm and 70 cm wavelengths and thus a very rugged near surface structure at the decimeter to meter scale this deposit does not show radar brightness variations consistent with levees or channels and appears to nearly overtop a massif suggesting very rapid emplacement deposits of similar morphology and or radar brightness are noted for craters such as pythagoras rutherfurd theophilus and aristillus images of the north pole show that despite recording the deposition of orientale material byrd and peary craters do not have dense patterns of radar bright ejecta from small craters on their floors such patterns in amundsen crater near the south pole were interpreted as diagnostic of abundant impact melt so the fraction of orientale derived melt in the north polar smooth plains 1000 km farther from the basin center is inferred to be much lower

testing the relation between uv vis color and tio2 content of the lunar maria reflectance spectroscopy is important for placing lunar samples into a regional and global geologic context to this end the ultraviolet visible uv vis color ratio used to estimate the tio2 composition of mature mare basalts has been one of the most widely used spectral parameters in lunar exploration we examine the correlation between uv vis color and tio2 content using a combination of clementine lunar prospector and sample data to document the extent to which color is dependent upon tio2 examination of the remotely sensed data reveals that the correlation between uv vis ratio and tio2 composition is best represented by a sigmoidal trend rather than the canonical linear or curvilinear correlation with this information we are then able to evaluate between two models that propose different explanations for the relationship between uv vis color and tio2 the first model attributes the correlation between tio2 and uv vis color to spectrally neutral opaques i e ilmenite while the other emphasizes the effect of fe ti charge transfer in lunar glasses and dual scattering mechanisms between high and low ti basalts we do not find evidence in the spectral data to support the occurrence of fe ti charge transfer in lunar glass as the principal cause for color in high ti basalts the data also do not substantiate the existence of different scattering mechanisms e g volume v surface scattering between high and low tio2 basalts instead our analyses substantiate that the spectral effects of ilmenite exhibit a major influence over the uv vis ratio by including sample data we find that in addition to ilemenite tio2 content factors such as feo content ilmenite grain size modal abundance of plagioclase and the olivine to pyroxene ratio in a mare soils can influence the uv vis continuum these findings point to promising avenues of research that future uv vis spectral techniques can exploit in order to yield more accurate tio2 estimates and potentially additional petrologic information

sampling and faunal turnover in early eocene mammals badgley c and gingerich p d 1988 sampling and faunal turnover in early eocene mammals palaeogeogr palaeoclimatol palaeoecol 63 141 157 faunal turnovers in the fossil record are episodes of synchronous appearance and disappearance of species from a community often resulting in net change in species richness we studied the biostratigraphic record of faunal turnover involving early wasatchian early eocene mammals from the clark s fork basin wyoming u s a two faunal turnovers occur in this record one at the base of the wasatchian comprised mainly of appearances of taxonomically and ecologically distinctive species and a later one biohorizon a of schankler 1980 comprised mainly of disappearances especially of carnivorous species this study focuses on biohorizon a in the record of the clark s fork basin biohorizon a may be an artifact of sampling sample size and species richness are highly correlated r 0 95 throughout this record moreover sample size and species richness fluctuate markedly between successive stratigraphic intervals peaks of appearances coincide with large sample sizes and peaks of disappearances with low sample sizes the peaks and valleys in fossil productivity over time mask the real timing of appearances and disappearances of species changes in fossil productivity in the stratigraphic section may result from changes in exposure area taphonomic factors or ecological factors evaluation of the effects of sampling is a necessary prerequisite for investigating the chronological and ecological significance of faunal turnovers

x ray digital imaging petrography of lunar mare soils modal analyses of minerals and glasses it is essential that accurate modal i e volume percentages of the various mineral and glass phases in lunar soils be used for addressing and resolving the effects of space weathering upon reflectance spectra as well as for their calibration such data are also required for evaluating the resource potential of lunar minerals for use at a lunar base however these data are largely lacking particle counting information for lunar soils originally obtained to study formational processes does not provide these necessary data including the percentages of minerals locked in multi phase lithic fragments and fused soil particles such as agglutinates we have developed a technique for modal analyses sensu stricto of lunar soils using digital imaging of x ray maps obtained with an energy dispersive spectrometer mounted on an electron microprobe a suite of nine soils 90 to 150 micrometers size fraction from the apollo 11 12 15 and 17 mare sites was used for this study this is the first collection of such modal data on soils from all apollo mare sites the abundances of free mineral fragments in the mare soils are greater for immature and submature soils than for mature soils largely because of the formation of agglutinitic glass as maturity progresses in considerations of resource utilization at a lunar base the best lunar soils to use for mineral beneficiation i e most free mineral fragments have maturities near the immature submature boundary is feo approximately or 30 not the mature soils with their complications due to extensive agglutination the particle data obtained from the nine mare soils confirm the generalizations for lunar soils predicted by l a taylor and d s mckay 1992 lunar planet sci conf 23rd pp 1411 1412 abstract

radar probing of planetary regoliths an example from the northern rim of imbrium basin 1 imaging radar measurements at long wavelengths e g 30 cm allow deep up to tens of meters probing of the physical structure and dielectric properties of planetary regoliths we illustrate a potential application for a mars orbital synthetic aperture radar sar using new earth based 70 cm wavelength radar data for the moon the terrae on the northern margin of mare imbrium the montes jura region have diffuse radar backscatter echoes that are 2 4 times weaker at 3 8 cm 70 cm and 7 5 m wavelengths than most other lunar nearside terrae possible geologic explanations are 1 a pyroclastic deposit associated with sinuous rilles in this region 2 buried mare basalt or a zone of mixed highland basaltic debris cryptomaria or 3 layers of ejecta associated with the iridum and plato impacts that have fewer meter sized rocks than typical highlands regolith while radar data at 3 8 cm to 7 5 m wavelengths suggest significant differences between the montes jura region and typical highlands the surface geochemistry and rock abundance inferred from clementine uv vis data and eclipse thermal images are consistent with other lunar terrae there is no evidence for enhanced iron abundance expected for basaltic pyroclastic deposits near the source vents of the sinuous rilles radial to plato the regions of low 70 cm radar return are consistent with overlapping concentric haloes about iridum and plato and do not occur preferentially in topographically low areas as is observed for radar mapped cryptomaria thus we suggest that the extensive radar dark area associated with the montes jura region is due to overlapping rock poor ejecta deposits from iridum and plato craters comparison of the radial extent of low radar return crater haloes with a model for ejecta thickness shows that these rock poor layers are detected by 70 cm radar where they are on the order of 10 m and thicker a sar in orbit about mars could use similar deep probing to reveal the nature of crater and basin related deposits

the basalts of mare frigoris this paper discusses the methodology and results of a detailed investigation of mare frigoris using remote sensing data from clementine lunar prospector and lunar reconnaissance orbiter with the objective of mapping and characterizing the compositions and eruptive history of its volcanic units with the exception of two units in the west mare frigoris and lacus mortis are filled with basalts having low tio2 to very low tio2 low feo and high al2o3 abundances these compositions indicate that most of the basalts in frigoris are high al basalts a potentially undersampled yet important group in the lunar sample collection for its clues about the heterogeneity of the lunar mantle thorium abundances of most of the mare basalts in frigoris are also low although much of the mare surface appears elevated due to contamination from impact gardening with the surrounding high th imbrium ejecta there are however a few regional thorium anomalies that are coincident with cryptomare units in the east the two youngest mare basalt units and some of the scattered pyroclastic deposits and volcanic constructs in addition mare frigoris lies directly over the northern extent of the major conduit for a magma plumbing system that fed many of the basalts that filled oceanus procellarum as interpreted by andrews hanna et al 2014 using data from the gravity recovery and interior laboratory mission the relationship between this deep reaching magma conduit and the largest extent of high al basalts on the moon makes mare frigoris an intriguing location for further investigation of the lunar mantle

x ray digital imaging petrography technique development for lunar mare soils remote sensing studies are the primary means of solar system exploration in particular spectral reflectance measurements involve determinations of the nature and compositions of other worlds through analysis of absorption features characteristic of the surface chemistry and mineralogy these studies are particularly applicable to airless solar system bodies e g the moon because atmospheres such as on earth tend to interfere with the reflectance spectrum the precision of the spectral measurements is greatly increased by calibration with actual lunar soils in the past these calibrations were done using particle counting data collected for the study of soil formation processes soil classification and provenance determination these particle counting data while valuable in those areas of study neither identify the true volume percentages of soil particles nor give the true modal values for the various phases i e minerals and glasses which make up the soil grains these data are paramount for accurate spectral reflectance calibrations therefore in this paper a new technique is presented that involves x ray digital imaging of lunar soils using an energy dispersive spectrometer eds on an electron microprobe in contrast to particle counting with an optical microscope the digital imaging method allows precise volume percentages of soil grains to be determined including absolute modal abundances of the various phases locked within the particles as well as their chemistry in order to validate this method for characterization of lunar soils the technique was applied to four apollo 17 soils that were previously described by heiken and mckay 1974 via particle counts with an optical microscope and similar results were obtained in addition to verifying the x ray digital imaging technique the obtained data were applied in order to better understand the lunar soil formational process specifically the variation of particle types with maturity

the lunar rock and mineral characterization consortium deconstruction and integrated mineralogical petrologic and spectroscopic analyses of mare basalts the lunar rock and mineral characterization consortium lrmcc has conducted coordinated mineralogy petrography spectroscopy analyses of a suite of pristine lunar basalts four basalt slabs two low ti two high ti and paired thin sections were analyzed thin sections were analyzed for mineralogy petrography while the slabs were used to prepare particulate separates of major mineral phases and bulk samples mineral separates and particulate bulk samples were crushed to controlled grain sizes and their reflectance spectra measured in the nasa relab at brown university the resulting data set provides an essential foundation for spectral mixing models offers valuable endmember constraints for space weathering analyses and represents critical new ground truth results for lunar science and exploration efforts

mapping the feo and tio2 content of the lunar surface with multispectral imagery the derivation of quantitative elemental concentrations from multispectral imaging of the moon has long been a goal of lunar remote sensing concentration maps at the spatial resolutions available from the recent clementine mission would provide a revolutionary new tool for understanding the origin and evolution of the lunar crust lucey et al 1995 presented a method for extracting the concentration of fe from multispectral imaging of the moon this paper examines and quantifies important aspects ofthat technique left unexamined by lucey et al which had the potential to severely limit its utility these aspects include the effects of maturity grain size mineralogy shading due to topography and the presence of glass we also present a new algorithm for derivation of tio2 from multispectral imaging of both mare and highland units we find that both techniques are only weakly sensitive to maturity and that they have about 1 wt accuracy based on examination of the spectral properties and compositions of resolved lunar sampling stations presented by blewett et al 1997 we also discuss these findings in the context of two contrasting views of the effect of composition on lunar spectral properties presented by pieters and coworkers and hapke and coworkers we find the view of hapke and coworkers to be more consistent with our observations using a global mosaic of clementine multispectral data and these element derivation algorithms we find that the global modal abundance of feo is 4 5 wt 1 wt and the global modal abundance of tio2 is 0 45 wt 1 wt

global elemental maps of the moon the lunar prospector gamma ray spectrometer lunar prospector gamma ray spectrometer spectra along with counting rate maps of thorium potassium and iron delineate large compositional variations over the lunar surface thorium and potassium are highly concentrated in and around the nearside western maria and less so in the south pole aitken basin counting rate maps of iron gamma rays show a surface iron distribution that is in general agreement with other measurements from clementine and the lunar prospector neutron detectors

lunar fe and ti abundances comparison of lunar prospector and clementine data the lunar prospector neutron spectrometer data correlate well with iron and titanium abundances obtained through analysis of clementine spectral reflectance data with the iron and titanium dependence removed the neutron spectrometer data also reveal regions with enhanced amounts of gadolinium and samarium incompatible rare earth elements that are enriched in the final phases of magma crystallization these regions are found mainly around the ramparts of the imbrium impact basin but not around the other basins including the much larger and deeper south pole aitken basin this result confirms the compositional uniqueness of the surface and interior of the imbrium region

remote sensing studies of the dionysius region of the moon 1 the dionysius region is located near the western edge of mare tranquillitatis and is centered on dionysius crater which exhibits a well developed dark ray system proposed origins for these dark rays included impact melt deposits and dark primary ejecta the region also contains extensive deposits of cayley type light plains clementine multispectral images and a variety of spacecraft photography were utilized to investigate the composition and origin of geologic units in the dionysius region the portions of the dark rays for which spectral and chemical data were obtained are composed of mare debris contaminated with minor amounts of highland material both five point spectra and values of the optical maturity omat parameter indicate that the dark rays are dominated by mare basalts not glassy impact melts the high albedo rays associated with dionysius exhibit feo and tio2 values that are lower than those of the adjacent dark ray surfaces and omat values that indicate that bright ray surfaces are not fully mature the high albedo rays are bright largely because of the contrast in albedo between ray material containing highlands rich ejecta and the adjacent mare rich surfaces the mafic debris ejected by dionysius was derived from a dark iron rich unit exposed high on the inner wall of the crater this layer probably represents a mare deposit that was present at the surface of the preimpact target site with one possible exception there is no evidence for buried mare basalts associated with cayley plains in the region

the seismic alert system for mexico city an evaluation of its performance and a strategy for its improvement the seismic alert system sas for mexico city has now been in operation for about 15 years the sas takes advantage of the fact that the city is located more than 300 km from the foci of many of the potentially damaging earthquakes the system consists of 15 accelerometers located along the coast of the state of guerrero above a segment of subduction plate boundary that is a mature seismic gap an algorithm estimates the magnitudes of earthquakes from the near source accelerograms and issues public and restricted alerts for earthquakes with m 6 and 5 m 6 respectively an evaluation of the sas s performance during 1991 2004 reveals a surprisingly high rate of failure and false alerts this poor performance results from an inadequate detection algorithm and a limited areal coverage by the sas this renders the alert system of limited use in this article we propose an alternative strategy for detecting earthquakes potentially damaging to mexico city that differs substantially from the one presently implemented by the sas although our analysis is based on close to source accelerograms of 45 mexican earthquakes and the corresponding peak accelerations recorded at a reference site in mexico city cu there is no restriction on the distance to the field station except that its location should provide sufficient alert time to mexico city based on these data an attenuation relation is derived to compute expected peak acceleration at cu a red from root mean square acceleration a rms at a field station the relation permits specification of an a red threshold given the peak acceleration at cu a cu for which an alert is desired along with prescribed probabilities of failure and false alert we find that the use of bandpass filtered 0 2 1 0 hz accelerograms leads to an improved performance of the sas the choice of the filter is guided by the frequency band of amplification of seismic waves in the lake bed zone of mexico city we think that a single level of general public alert may be the best option a good choice appears to be an alert for a cu 2 gal for 0 2 1 0 hz bandpass filtered accelerograms with 1 probability of failure to accomplish this we must set a red 0 8 gal the data since 1985 suggest that such an alert would occur about once or twice a year and the event will be felt by most persons in the lake bed zone the proposed algorithm along with an array of sensors located 30 to 40 km apart and distributed in a roughly semicircular arc of 310 km radius centered at mexico city should considerably improve the areal coverage and performance of the sas and potentially save thousands of lives

lunar rare earth element distribution and ramifications for feo and tio2 lunar prospector neutron spectrometer observations lunar prospector neutron spectrometer data have been used to map the global surface distribution of the incompatible rare earth elements gadolinium and samarium from the low altitude 30 15 km mapping orbit these results afford improved surface resolution and detailed views of the potassium rare earth elements and phosphorus kreep distribution within and around mare imbrium and elsewhere the gd and sm results serve as a complementary and independent check of the distribution of kreep on the moon in contrast with the lunar prospector gamma ray spectrometer results for thorium the neutron spectrometer observations reflect the presence of fe and ti as well as gd and sm the contributions of fe and ti are removed using high spatial resolution clementine spectral reflectance determinations of feo and tio2 abundances overall the resulting gd and sm abundance map agrees with the th abundance map determined using the lunar prospector gamma ray spectrometer in general the detailed features of the procellarum imbrium kreep terrane are found in both for example distinct highs in gd sm and th abundances are resolved over the craters mairan aristarchus kepler reinhold lalande and aristillus over the apennine bench and fra mauro regions and over the montes jura and montes carpatus indicating an enhanced abundance of kreep in these locations the neutron observations also provide constraints on feo and tio2 abundances for some high ti locales there is a significant disagreement with tio2 abundances inferred from clementine spectral reflectance

rugged lava flows on the moon revealed by earth based radar 1 basaltic volcanism is widespread on the lunar nearside and returned samples suggest that the mare forming magmas had low viscosity that led to primarily sheet like deposits new 70 cm wavelength radar observations that probe several meters beneath the lunar surface reveal differences in mare backscatter properties not explained by age or compositional variations we interpret areas of high backscatter and high circular polarization ratio in maria serenitatis imbrium and crisium as having an enhanced abundance of decimeter scale subsurface rocks relative to typical mare forming flows the 3 5 b y survival of these differences implies an initial platy blocky or ridged lava flow surface layer with thickness of at least 3 5 m such rugged morphology might arise from episodic changes in magma effusion rate as observed for disrupted flood basalt surfaces on the earth and mars very high flow velocities or increased viscosity due to a number of factors significant information on lunar mare eruption conditions may thus be obtained from long wavelength radar probing of the shallow subsurface

ring moat dome structures rmdss in the lunar maria statistical compositional and morphological characterization and assessment of theories of origin ring moat dome structures rmdss are positive morphologic features found clustered across many mare regions on the moon of which only a few isolated examples have been previously reported our continuing survey has expanded the known locations of the rmdss from 2 600 to over 8 000 indicating that rmdss are more common geological features than previously thought this work presents a detailed geomorphological analysis of 532 rmdss identified in several mare basins the combination of detailed elemental mapping morphological and morphometric analyses spatial distribution relationships with other geologic structures and comparison with terrestrial analogs lead us to conclude that 1 rmdss represent low circular mounds with diameters of a few hundred meters average about 200 m and a mean height of 3 5 m the mounds are surrounded by moats ranging from tens to over 100 m in width and up to several meters in depth 2 there is a wide variation of titanium abundances although rmdss are more commonly found in mare regions of moderate to high titanium content 3 wt tio2 3 rmdss are found to occur on or around fractures graben and volcanic edifices small shields and cones 4 a spatial association between rmdss and irregular mare patches see braden et al 2014 https doi org 10 1038 ngeo2252 is observed suggesting that both may form from related lava flows 5 comparisons between rmdss and lava inflationary structures on earth support an inflation related extrusive nature and a genetic relationship with host lava flow processes and 6 rmds embayment relationships with craters of different degradation ages superposed on the host mare and regolith development models produces conflicting age relationships and divide theories of rmds origin into two categories 1 synchronous with the emplacement and cooling of the host lava flows 3 4 ga and 2 emplaced substantially after the host mare lava unit in the period 0 3 ga we outline the evidence supporting this age conundrum and implications for the different theories of origin and describe future research avenues to help resolve these outstanding questions 2020 american geophysical union all rights reserved

a sharper view of impact craters from clementine data the ultraviolet visible camera on the clementine spacecraft obtained high spatial resolution images of the moon in five spectral channels impact craters mapped with these multispectral images show a scale of lithologic diversity that varies with crater size and target stratigraphy prominent lithologic variations feldspathic versus basaltic occur within the south wall of copernicus 93 kilometers in diameter on the scale of 1 to 2 kilometers lithologic diversity at tycho 85 kilometers in diameter is less apparent at this scale although the impact melt of these two large craters is remarkably similar in this spectral range the lunar surface within and around the smaller crater giordano bruno 22 kilometers in diameter is largely dominated by the mixing of freshly excavated material with surrounding older soils derived from a generally similar feldspathic lithology

abundance and distribution of iron on the moon the abundance and distribution of iron on the moon is derived from a near global data set from clementine the determined iron content of the lunar highlands crust 3 percent iron by weight supports the hypothesis that much of the lunar crust was derived from a magma ocean the iron content of lower crustal material exposed by the south pole aitken impact basin on the lunar farside is higher 7 to 8 percent by weight and consistent with a basaltic composition this composition supports earlier evidence that the lunar crust becomes more mafic with depth the data also suggest that the bulk composition of the moon differs from that of the earth9s mantle this difference excludes models for lunar origin that require the earth and moon to have the same compositions such as fission and coaccretion and favors giant impact and capture

clementine uvvis multispectral data and the apollo 17 landing site what can we tell and how well multispectral data obtained by the clementine mission are correlated to compositional and petrographic information for individual sample stations at the apollo 17 landing site the soils contain a variety of fe2 bearing phases in different proportions including low and high ca pyroxene olivine ilmenite and glass in the mare soils ilmenite carries a substantial proportion of the fe2 and in all soils glasses particularly agglutinates carry nearly as much or more fe2 as the silicates using an empirical calibration concentrations of feo and tio2 estimated from the ultraviolet visible uvvis data correlate well with measured compositions of surface soils yielding correlation coefficients of 0 94 and 0 95 respectively the ferrous absorption however is weak in the mostly submature to mature apollo 17 soils thus spectral curvature is useful only for investigating the mafic silicate mineralogy around fresh craters and deposits the effects of local topography cause significant variations in feo and tio2 derived from clementine uvvis data but do not impair first order geologic interpretations parameters derived from the uvvis data allow quantification of the composition and nature of the soils and by inference underlying rock formations and are consistent with the known geologic character of the landing site the highland regions along this part of the serenitatis rim are relatively feo rich partly as a result of abundant mafic impact melt breccia and partly from the addition of basaltic material in the form of impact debris and pyroclastic deposits at high elevations massif soils are rich in a mafic melt breccia component although slopes and areas mixed by small craters reveal a mixture of melt breccia and older highland material of anorthositic norite composition soils developed on hummocky deposits that postdate the massifs such as the sculptured hills have a similar range of compositions as the massifs elevated plains northeast of the sculptured hills are more mafic than the known impact melt breccias suggesting that they may also contain an older volcanic component sources of low ti basalt or very low ti basalt though not present in the immediate vicinity of the landing site occur east and northeast of taurus littrow valley and are readily identified using the uvvis data

imaging of lunar surface maturity the physical evolution of the lunar surface with exposure to the space environment is termed maturation and maturity is the degree to which a particular lunar soil possesses quantitative characteristics consistent with that exposure several quantitative measures or indices of maturity have been proposed and employed including the abundance of solar wind gas abundance of various types of agglutinates various measures of grain size and is feo among the changes attendant with space exposure are striking changes in the optical characteristics of soils mature lunar soils are dark red and exhibit reduced spectral contrast relative to immature soils this paper presents an optical maturity index that quantifies the spectral effects of maturation we show that this optical maturity index correlates with other maturity indices about as well as the accepted maturity indices correlate among themselves and is only weakly coupled to composition the modest correlations among maturity indices suggest important controls on individual maturity indices other than age uncorrelated variations in the rates of accumulation of individual indicators or variations in depths over which indicators are emplaced in addition to mixing these effects conspire to reduce the equivalence of maturity and duration of surface exposure optical maturity illustrates some of these effects showing that ejecta of large and small craters mature at different rates and that the interiors and ejecta of large craters exhibit systematically different optical maturities the same or analogous effects are likely to influence other maturity indices

source retrieval for deep local earthquakes with broadband records abstract body wave data recorded at a small network of broadband seismograph stations are analyzed to investigate local events with focal depths deeper than about 50 km for these events the initial portion of p wave displacement represents well the source time function with a scaler correction for the seismic moment the magnitudes of the analyzed earthquakes range from m w 3 1 to 6 5 it is shown that the seismic moment m 0 and the pulse width are well correlated as m 0 3 constant indicating that the stress drop is largely constant this dynamic similarity seems to be valid for a vast range of earthquake sizes m w 1 8 it is also shown that source complexity such as a multiple shock nature is not a characteristic of only large earthquakes but is often observed even for small earthquakes

source times and scaling relations of large earthquakes source time is a kinematic fault parameter corresponding to the duration of seismic source time functions and is accurately determined from phase spectra of long period surface waves source times are determined for 36 large earthquakes during the last three decades scaling relations among source times seismic moments and fault dimensions are derived seismic moment is proportional to the cube of source time and fault dimension is proportional to source time source times for low angle thrust earthquakes along deep sea trenches are found to be longer than those of other types such as intraplate shocks and deep shocks they are also significantly longer than the rupture times expected from a haskell model suggesting that generally there exists an introductory stage of faulting that precedes the main stage of the rupture propagation

an assessment of the contribution of fossil cave deposits to the quaternary paleontological record mammal bearing cave deposits are an important part of the quaternary fossil record but the exact nature of the contribution that caves make to the fossil record is a research area that is largely unexplored to explore this issue late pleistocene species representation in cave versuses non cave deposits was examined additionally this study examined how fossiliferous cave deposits influence perceptions of past biogeographic distributions and evaluated factors that impact the distribution of cave deposits across the united states cave deposits account for a high proportion of the individual species records known from the late pleistocene and caves provide the only late pleistocene records of 14 individual taxa calculated ratios of individual taxonomic records from caves relative to the total number of individual taxonomic records resulted in a value of 0 62 the impact of cave data on understanding of late pleistocene biogeographic distribution patterns vary among individual species of sciurid rodents geographic analyses comparing the distribution of cave and non cave sites in texas suggest a strong relationship between site distribution and specific geologic and hydrologic features ultimately understanding potential biases recorded in distinct depositional settings provides improved frameworks for interpreting the adequacy of the fossil record

small scale lunar farside volcanism abstract we identified and mapped 28 mare basalt occurrences between the australe and south pole aitken basins on the southern lunar farside and determined their absolute model ages amas by performing crater size frequency distribution csfd measurements our study area can be subdivided into seven major mare basalt occurrences in and around bolyai roche v rosseland pauli and roche craters south of both rosseland and coblentz craters as well as mare patches between eotvos and roche craters the amas of the mare basalts in and around bolyai crater range from 2 1 ga to 3 5 ga two units varying drastically within short distances the mare patches south of coblentz crater contain nine units that have amas ranging from 2 1 ga to 3 8 ga the mare basalts in roche v crater show an ama of 2 2 ga we mapped seven volcanic units in rosseland crater and derived amas for five of these units the mare basalts in rosseland crater show the youngest amas found in our study area ranging from 1 5 ga to 2 9 ga the mare basalt occurrence south of rosseland crater shows significantly older ages with an ama of 3 3 ga the mare basalts in pauli and roche craters show amas from 1 7 ga to 3 1 ga the mare patches between eotvos and roche craters show a similar range of amas from 1 9 ga to 3 1 ga the amas of the mare basalts in our study show that the lunar farside was volcanically active for nearly as long as the lunar nearside 1 2 ga ago or at least longer than previously thought 2 5 ga ago and predicted by models of the ascent and eruption of lunar basalts in addition we calculated thicknesses and volumes of the investigated mare basalts with thicknesses between 21 m and 172 m and volumes from 0 1 km3 to 379 km3 the mare basalts in our study area show a wide range of dimensions similar to other mare basalts of the lunar near and farsides

thorium abundances on the lunar surface measurements of absolute thorium abundances on the lunar surface are presented using both the high and low altitude data taken with the lunar prospector gamma ray spectrometer an analysis of the uncertainties shows that the measured uncertainties are 7 g g are likely small area regions 150 km 2 using lunar topographic data we have shown that the thorium abundances in the lunar high lands and portions of south pole aitken spa basin are larger for lower elevations we have also studied a number of regions with anomalously high thorium abundances such as the northwestern region of spa basin the crater arago in western tranquillitatis and the compton belkovich region in the northeastern highlands the compton belkovich region appears to be enriched with evolved rocks such as alkali anorthosite and currently represents the only such extended region on the moon that has been identified in contrast tycho crater has very low thorium abundances which suggests that kreep was not assimilated at depth in this portion of the moon

optical effects of space weathering the role of the finest fraction the optical properties of lunar softs are different than those of rocks from which they are derived as a consequence of lunar space weathering soils are darker and exhibit a distinctive red sloped continuum and weaker mineral absorption bands the accumulation of dark glass welded aggregates agglutinates has been thought to account for these optical effects of space weathering on lunar soils spectroscopic analyses of agglutinate separates and size fractions for a suite of lunar softs presented here indicate that the agglutinate paradigm is insufficient to fully account for lunar optical alteration it is the finest fraction of lunar soils 25 gm which constitute 25 wt that dominates the optical properties of the bulk soil unlike size fractions of most silicates for which the finest fraction is the brightest the lunar soil size fractions all have comparable albedos in the short wavelength visible in the near infrared however it is the finest fraction that exhibits the steep red continuum and weak absorption bands the properties of the finest fraction cannot be duplicated by preparing a fine fraction by grinding larger agglutinate rich soil particles these results suggest space weathering on airless bodies is dominated by surface correlated processes perhaps associated with the development of fine grained fe o on or near the surface of grains and the accumulation of the larger agglutinates is not necessarily required to account for lunar optical alteration

an analysis of the mariner 10 color ratio map of mercury abstract the results of a geological analysis of the mariner 10 orange uv color ratio man of mercury b hapke c christman b rava and j mosher proc lunar planet sci conf 11th 1980 pp 817 822 are given certain errors that occured in reproducing the published version of the 1980 map are pointed out the relationships between color and terrain are distinctly nonlunar there is no correlation between color boundaries and the smooth plains on mercury in contrast to the strong correlation between color and maria highlands contacts on the moon there are no large exposures of low albedo blue material that could be considered to be mercurian analogs of high fe ti lunar maria basalts on any part of mercury imaged by mariner 10 three lines of evidence imply that the crust is low in fe2 and ti4 rays and ejecta blankets are bluer than most areas on mercury the fe2 band in mercury s reflectance spectrum is very weak or nonexistent and the albedo contrasts are smaller than those on the moon there is no evidence in the spectral or albedo data that a lunar type of second wave of melting ever occured on mercury rather the observations are most consistent with the hypothesis that the smooth plains are extrusive landforms derived from local material possibly mobilized by the caloris event in several places correlations between color and topography can be explained if older redder higher fe materials underlie younger bluer lower fe surfaces there is some evidence of late fe rich pyroclastic like activity

preservational paleoecological and evolutionary patterns in the paleogene of wyoming montana and the neogene of pakistan abstract contributions to this special issue have compared the tectonic settings fluvial systems paleoclimates paleofloras and faunas vertebrate taphonomy and mammalian paleoecology and evolution from two long continental records of cenozoic ecosystems in this concluding paper we summarize highlights of earlier papers to provide an overview of similarities and differences between these paleogene and neogene records the relative influences of tectonic climatic and fluvial processes on lithofacies environments of fossil preservation and the productivity of the fossil record are compared for each sequence tectonism was the primary control on sediment accumulation rate and the distribution of major depositional environments in each basin fossil productivity species richness and the distribution of fossil localities among fluvial environments change across formation boundaries in each sequence the taxonomic temporal and spatial resolution of vertebrate assemblages varies among fluvial environments and differs between the two sequences as a result the paleogene record is better suited for detailed study of evolutionary change within local lineages and the neogene record for detailed paleocommunity reconstruction several aspects of biotic change are considered 1 the timing and magnitude of mammalian faunal turnover in relation to climatic change are evaluated in terms of three models of evolutionary change within ecosystems van valen s red queen model stenseth and maynard smith s stationary model and vrba s turnover pulse model in both records climatic change was accompanied by change in faunal composition and ecological structure but both pulsed and diachronous biotic change at a resolution of about 0 5 m y also occurred over periods when no significant climatic change was discernible this pattern best matches the predictions of the red queen model 2 in both records the rate of mammalian faunal turnover first and last appearances of taxa is not highly correlated with standing richness suggesting that paleocommunities were not a equilibrium richness on these time scales 3 in the paleogene record plant species richness declined while mammalian species richness increased 4 in each sequence some episodes of mammalian faunal turnover were in step with changes in size or trophic structure while other changes in faunal composition entailed no corresponding change in ecological structure while both records would benefit from improved paleoclimatic temporal species level and ecomorphological resolution this initial synthesis suggests that both physical and biotic factors were important influences on faunal composition the timing and rate of turnover and ecological structure in these paleocommunities

remote sensing of potential lunar resources 1 near side compositional properties new telescopic ccd multispectral imaging of the lunar near side and 330 870 nm spectroscopy of selected regions are presented as aids in estimating compositional differences relevant to locating potential lunar resources such as ilmenite fetio3 and solar wind implanted 3he and h conversion of 400 560 nm ccd ratio images to weight percent tio2 using a version of the charette et al 1974 empirical relation allows construction of a new tio2 abundance map for the lunar maria accurate to 2 wt ho2 this map provides a consistent view of tio2 distribution among mature mare soils and can be used to estimate areas potentially rich in ilmenite western mare tranquillitatis exhibits the highest tio2 abundances 8 wt followed by regions near flamsteed p and in northern oceanus procellarum a 950 560 nm ccd ratio mosaic of the full moon provides estimates of relative surface maturity on local scales as defined by the degree of agglutinate production due to micrometeorite impacts since high 3he concentrations are correlated with mature ilmenite rich soils a combination of relative surface maturity maps and tio2 abundance maps may be useful for estimating 3he and possibly h distribution on local scales while dark mantle materials are also potential sources of ilmenite 3he and h their compositional differences from mare soils prevent accurate remote mapping of their tio2 abundance and relative maturity reflectance spectra relative to a more rigorously defined ms 2 standard region of dark mantle materials and high tio2 mare areas exhibit previously undocumented near uv 350 nm changes in spectral slope apparently related to compositional variations determination of the primary lunar sites for resource utilization will be dictated by the future goals and priorities of the lunar resource program

global estimates of lunar iron and titanium contents from the chang e 1 iim data 1 until recently global high spatial resolution maps of feo and tio2 of the moon were only derived from clementine data in this study we show global maps of feo and tio2 using chang e 1 interference imaging spectrometer iim at a spatial resolution of 200 m pixel with a newly developed calibration presented here spectra obtained by iim compare well with telescopic spectra spectral parameters previously shown to be sensitive to iron and titanium derived from the calibrated iim data are highly correlated with the measured elemental concentration with r2 0 96 for feo and 0 95 for tio2 the maps were developed using this calibration histograms of basalt feo estimates have a negatively skewed distribution while tio2 distributions are unimodal they also revealed that the lunar highland crust is relatively uniform on the quadrant scale several hundred to thousand kilometers scale but inhomogenous on the global scale the area of highest elevation of the moon has very low feo and tio2 raising the question about south pole aitken spa whether its ejecta deposits covered the highest elevation and when it was formed although the average feo and tio2 abundances for basalts are highly correlated local areas of elevated iron can be associated with both high and low titanium

quantitative mineralogical characterization of lunar high ti mare basalts and soils for oxygen production efficient lunar resource utilization requires accurate and quantitative evaluation of mineral and glass abundances distribution and extraction feasibility especially for ilmenite with this in mind true modal analyses were performed on high ti mare basalts and soils with x ray backscattered electron signal digital imaging techniques and these data indicate that 1 ilmenite concentrations are similar for basalts and immature submature soils with similar tio2 content 2 ilmenite liberation of crushed mare basalts and immature submature mare soils are comparable i e both contain similar amounts of free ilmenite and 3 because of impact melting and agglutination of primary minerals mature mare soils contain less ilmenite both free and attached modal analyses of magnetic separates of high ti mare basalts and soils show that 1 ilmenite was concentrated by a factor of 3 3 and 2 soil ilmenite was concentrated to factors of 1 7 2 3 the lower soil ilmenite separation efficiency is attributed to fe bearing agglutinitic glass and amorphous rinds adhered to soil particles mass yields of magnetically generated feedstocks were generally less than 5 wt in most cases calculation of oxygen yield as released by hydrogen gas reduction of ilmenite show that 1 beneficiated basalt will provide the most oxygen 8 10 because of higher ilmenite concentration 2 reduction of raw immature submature mare soils and basalts will produce similar amounts of lunar liquid oxygen llox 2 1 3 1 and 3 raw fe rich pyroclastic soil 74220 will provide more oxygen 5 4 than beneficiated high ti mare soils and half that of beneficiated high ti mare basalts high ti mare soils are attractive resources for lunar liquid oxygen llox production because of their unconsolidated nature high ilmenite abundance and widespread occurrence energy intensive excavation and comminution likely prohibits the basalt mining during early lunar occupation orange soils are important resources for llox and various volatile elements but slower reaction kinetics and glass sintering pose potential difficulties for large scale operations

remote sensing of potential lunar resources 2 high spatial resolution mapping of spectral reflectance ratios and implications for nearside mare tio2 content high spatial resolution maps illustrating variations in spectral reflectance 400 560 nm ratio values have been generated for the following mare regions 1 the border between southern mare serenitatis and northern mare tranquillitatis including the ms 2 standard area and apollo 17 landing site 2 central mare tranquillitatis 3 oceanus procellarum near seleucus and 4 southern oceanus procellarum around flamsteed we have also obtained 320 1000 nm reflectance spectra of several sites relative to ms 2 to facilitate scaling of the images and provide additional information on surface composition inferred tio2 abundances for these mare regions have been determined using an empirical calibration which relates the weight percent tio2 in mature mare regolith to the observed 400 560 nm ratio mare areas with high tio2 abundances are probably rich in ilmenite fetio3 a potential lunar resource the highest potential tio2 concentrations we have identified in the nearside maria occur in central mare tranquillitatis inferred tio2 contents for these areas are 9 wt and are spatially consistent with the highest tio2 regions mapped previously at lower spatial resolution we note that the morphology of surface units with high 400 560 nm ratio values increases in complexity at higher spatial resolutions new telescopic spectra of landing sites successfully reproduce the charette relation although we find that the 400 560 nm value is strongly a fimction of the sample area size the increased spectral contrast of the 400 730 nm ratio over the 400 560 nm ratio demonstrates the potential increased precision with which the 400 730 nm ratio might be used to estimate tio2 abundances comparisons have been made with previously published geologic maps lunar orbiter iv and ground based images and some possible morphologic correlations have been found between our mapped 400 560 nm ratio values and volcanic landforms such as lava flows mare domes and collapse pits

lunar iron and titanium abundance algorithms based on final processing of clementine ultraviolet visible images the clementine mission to the moon returned global imaging data collected by the ultraviolet visible uvvis camera this data set is now in a final state of calibration and a five band multispectral digital image model dim of the lunar surface will soon be available to the science community we have used observations of the lunar sample return sites and stations extracted from the final dim in conjunction with compositional information for returned lunar soils to revise our previously published algorithms for the spectral determination of the feo and tio2 content of the lunar surface the algorithms successfully normalize the effects of space weathering so that composition may be determined without regard to a surface s state of maturity these algorithms permit anyone with access to the standard archived dim to construct high spatial resolution maps of feo and tio2 abundance such maps will be of great utility in a variety of lunar geologic studies

integrated spectral analysis of mare soils and craters applications to eastern nearside basalts abstract high spatial resolution clementine images are examined to measure the reflectance properties of small and optically immature mare craters that have sampled discrete compositional units the spectral properties of these relatively crystalline mare materials are compared to associated mature soils to determine the effects of space weathering on specific basalt types space weathering is observed to alter the optical properties of distinct lunar basalt units in a systematic manner allowing compositional distinctions to be recognized across maturity states ultraviolet visible reflectance properties of mare basalts are sensitive to titanium content but are relatively independent of maturity state and demonstrate only a slight reddening as regoliths mature to soils other compositional distinctions between basalt types are identified by differences in albedo and band strength of ferrous minerals that are maintained over a full range of maturity states immature deposits within large craters are compared to the spectral properties of well defined mare units to examine the composition of buried materials when craters excavate through the mare highland contamination is readily identified as a mixing relation between mafic and feldspathic lithologies the approach presented here provides new information on the composition and stratigraphy of several nearside mare deposits including the identification of thin low iron and very low titanium basalts in lacus somniorum and more iron rich low titanium basalts in eastern mare frigoris

vertebrate fossil bearing paleosol units willwood formation lower eocene northwest wyoming u s a implications for taphonomy biostratigraphy and assemblage analysis abstract in the lower 300 m of the fluvial willwood formation of northwest wyoming most large concentrations of vertebrate fossils consist of disarticulated and broken skeletal remains that occur in widespread tubular thin 2 cm 1 m greenish and bluish gray mudstones that are low in percentage of free iron aluminum and manganese relatively high in percentages of organic carbon and often show evidence of clay eluviation these units lie atop sesquioxide rich sometimes clay illuviated variegated unit red yellow purple and mottled variants and are relicts of the a horizons of podzolic spodosols aquods the wide distribution of bone fragments the numerical proportions of bone elements weathering of the fragments and biogenic evidence indicate the vertebrate remains accumulated gradually as litter on the surface of the soils and became incorporated into the a horizon the bones were disarticulated broken and otherwise disturbed by the action of scavengers prior to burial occurrence of abundant vertebrate remains in discrete readily identifiable and widespread paleosol units makes these units valuable biostratigraphic markers zonules faunules evidence of geologically short term lag accumulation of the bones is important to assemblage analysis the paleosol concentrations result from attritional mortalities that more closely reflect composition of the life assemblage than do remains concentrated by fluvial transport or predators

clementine images of the lunar sample return stations refinement of feo and tio2 mapping techniques clementine uvvis images of the lunar sample return sites have been processed and used to produce refined calibrations for the iron and titanium determination algorithms of lucey et al 1995 1996 the high spatial resolution of the clementine data permits individual sampling stations to be resolved at the apollo 15 16 and 17 landing sites we find an excellent linear correlation between the spectral fe and ti parameters and the average feo and tio 2 contents of soils sampled at each site or station this correlation demonstrates that these techniques can confidently be applied to other areas of the moon the luna 24 site does not fit the ti relation found for other sites suggesting that either its sample is nonrepresentative or the reported landing coordinates are incorrect

multispectral images of mercury from the first messenger flyby analysis of global and regional color trends abstract we have analyzed messenger multispectral images of mercury in order to gain information on the nature of materials present on the planet s surface the quantitative analysis tools of lucey which are built on the hapke conceptual framework for the reflectance of a silicate regolith allow us to derive spectral parameter images that are sensitive to the abundance of ferrous iron in silicates the abundance of opaque phases and the state of maturity of the surface consistent with previous estimates we conclude that the silicate portion of mercury s surface is low in ferrous iron with a small range of variation the spectral changes that accompany regolith maturation on mercury are consistent with lunar style space weathering via the accumulation of nanophase iron the spectral character of mercury s major surface units high reflectance plains intermediate terrain and low reflectance material can be attributed to variations in the abundance of an opaque phase s a class of minor color unit the red spots occurs in at least three morphological varieties two of which are associated with deposits interpreted to be of pyroclastic origin the bright crater floor deposits a second type of minor unit have extremely shallow blue spectral slopes that are unrelated to the presence of immature material

statistical analysis of thorium and fast neutron data at the lunar surface 1 a comparison is conducted between the remotely sensed abundances of thorium through gamma ray spectroscopy and major chemical elements through fast neutron spectroscopy on the lunar surface these are key elements in the investigation of lunar evolution correlations of variations of thorium abundance and fast neutron flux are analyzed on a spatial scale of 180 km through the construction of a covariance map this technique is an unbiased mathematical method for developing the borders of major formations such as the procellarum kreep terrane although thorium variations are positively correlated with those of the fast neutron flux over most of the lunar nearside several locations within the procellarum kreep terrane have negative correlations this anticorrelation may denote an emplacement for these materials by transport of impact ejecta furthermore analysis of these data reveals the presence of a distinctive structure in the northwest corner of oceanus procellarum marked by a ring of enhanced thorium this structure may be related to an ancient impact basin the confirmation of such a ring of thorium around the major basins inside procellarum kreep terrane would reinforce the hypothesis of the redistribution of thorium during impact from shallow depth

nonmare volcanism on the moon photometric evidence for the presence of evolved silicic materials abstract images and photometric data from the lunar reconnaissance orbiter camera lroc narrow angle cameras nacs are used to investigate regions of the moon inferred from previous remote sensing compositional studies to be associated with nonmare silicic volcanics specifically lroc nac imagery with photometry normalized to account for local slopes using nac digital terrain models dtms was used to investigate the exposed areas associated with the compton belkovich volcanic complex cbvc hansteen alpha volcanic complex havc lassell massif lm gruithuisen domes gd and ejecta of aristarchus crater ac photometric studies of spacecraft landing sites for which ground truth compositional data exist allow us to study the relationship between photometric properties of soils and their mineralogical and chemical compositions the silicic regions have high reflectance and single scattering albedos that are consistent with different proportions of highly reflective minerals including alkali feldspar and quartz and low concentrations of mafic minerals of the silicic sites studied the cbvc has the highest reflectance values and single scattering albedos silicic pyroclastic deposits may also occur at the cbvc and we present evidence from laboratory spectra that an addition of up to 20 wt glassy silicic materials to a highlands type regolith simulant can account for the increased reflectance of these volcanic regions reflectance variations across and within the sites can be explained by mixing of felsic mineral components evolved to intermediate silicic compositions and or silicic pyroclastic deposits

the materials of the lunar procellarum kreep terrane a synthesis of data from geomorphological mapping remote sensing and sample analyses major features of the moon s procellarum kreep terrane include subdued relief and extensive resurfacing with mare basalt consistent with high concentrations of th and other heat producing elements at depth we relate the chemistry of sampled materials to the geomorphology th surface concentrations determined by the lunar prospector 2 pixels and feo and tio2 concentrations derived from clementine ultraviolet visible spectral data on the basis of geologic maps each pixel was classified as mare terra or mixed near the periphery of the terrane terra pixel compositions are relatively feldspathic in the interior they mainly represent imbrium basin rim or ejecta deposits and are mainly incompatible trace element rich norites and presumably represent materials from a thick section tens of kilometers of the pre imbrium crust of the terrane excavated by the imbrium event although imbrium ejecta are the principal source of surface terra materials the imbrium event did not create the th rich procellarum kreep terrane broad continuous expanses of mare pixels are observed with little interruption from protruding terra or terra penetrating craters the mare basalt dominated regoliths of these areas have a wide range of tio2 concentrations 18 leading to the conclusion that the high th concentrations are in the mare basalts and are not present in the regoliths as terra derived materials volcanic glasses and impact glasses of mare basalt composition collected from the procellarum kreep terrane support this conclusion

real time earthquake warning by using broadband p waveform 1 we develop a system which enables an early warning of earthquake occurrence several seconds before large ground shaking begins we assume that the vertical displacement of the broadband p waveform can be considered as the far field source time function of the earthquake based upon the seismic moment to source duration relation we may issue an early warning that an earthquake with magnitude greater than 6 has occurred when the initial p wave pulse duration continues for more than 3 seconds we have applied this algorithm to broadband seismograms recorded at japanese broadband stations for recent large earthquakes in japan we found that it really is possible to assess the occurrence of earthquakes with magnitude greater than 6 within 3 seconds after the p wave arrival