late accretion to the moon recorded in zircon u th he thermochronometry abstract we conducted zircon u th he zhe analysis of lunar impact melt breccia 14311 with the aim of leveraging radiation damage accumulated in zircon over extended intervals to detect low temperature or short lived impact events that have previously eluded traditional isotopic dating techniques our zhe data record a coherent date vs effective uranium concentration eu trend characterized by 3500 ma dates from low 75 ppm eu zircon grains and ca 110 ma dates for high 100 ppm eu grains a progression between these date populations is apparent for intermediate 75 100 ppm eu grains thermal history modeling constrains permissible temperatures and cooling rates during and following impacts modeling shows that the data are most simply explained by impact events at ca 3950 ma and ca 110 ma and limits allowable temperatures of heating events between 3950 110 ma modeling of solar cycling thermal effects at the lunar surface precludes this as the explanation for the ca 110 ma zhe dates we propose a sample history characterized by zircon resetting during the ca 3950 ma imbrium impact event with subsequent heating during an impact at ca 110 ma that ejected the sample to the vicinity of its collection site our data show that zircon has the potential to retain 4he over immense timescales 3950 myrs thus providing a valuable new thermochronometer for probing the impact histories of lunar samples and martian or asteroidal meteorites

magnetic anomalies in the imbrium and schrodinger impact basins orbital evidence for persistence of the lunar core dynamo into the imbrian epoch approximate maps of the lunar crustal magnetic field at low altitudes in the vicinities of the three imbrian aged impact basins orientale schrodinger and imbrium have been constructed using lunar prospector and kaguya orbital magnetometer data detectable anomalies are confirmed to be present well within the rims of imbrium and schrodinger anomalies in schrodinger are asymmetrically distributed about the basin center while a single isolated anomaly is most clearly detected within imbrium northwest of timocharis crater the subsurface within these basins was heated to high temperatures at the time of impact and required long time periods up to 1 myr to cool below the curie temperature for metallic iron remanence carriers 1043 k therefore consistent with laboratory analyses of returned samples a steady long lived magnetizing field i e a former core dynamo is inferred to have existed when these basins formed the asymmetrical distribution within schrodinger suggests partial demagnetization by later volcanic activity when the dynamo field was much weaker or nonexistent however it remains true that anomalies within imbrian aged basins are much weaker than those within most nectarian aged basins the virtual absence of anomalies within orientale where impact melt rocks the maunder formation are exposed at the surface is difficult to explain unless the dynamo field was much weaker during the imbrian period

isotope systematics and shock wave metamorphism i u pb in zircon titanite and monazite shocked experimentally up to 59 gpa this study reports the first u pb isotope analyses on experimentally shocked zircon titanite and monazite extracted from proterozoic granitoid rocks in all three types of minerals shock waves produce drastic changes in the crystal lattices causing strong lowering of birefringence turbidization and decolorization of the individual grains moreover x ray patterns indicate transition of the crystals into polycrystalline aggregates of 10 5 mm block size precisely dated grains with concordant or nearly concordant ages were embedded in kbr and shocked at 35 47 5 and 59 gpa u pb isotope analyses on these grains show that shock metamorphism does not fractionate pb isotopes within the analytical precision of 0 1 as far as chemical fractionation is concerned there is no difference in degree of concordancy between shocked and unshocked monazite and small degrees 2 of relative upb fractionation in shocked zircon and titanite are due to time integrated pb loss and not to the shock experiment in consequence the data document that shock wave metamorphism alone does not measurably effect the u pb chronometer questioning the view that lower intercept ages of discordant u pb data reflect shock induced re equilibration of the chronometer in moderately to highly shocked rapidly cooling rocks

the early geological history of the moon inferred from ancient lunar meteorite miller range 13317 abstract miller range mil 13317 is a heterogeneous basalt bearing lunar regolith breccia that provides insights into the early magmatic history of the moon mil 13317 is formed from a mixture of

infrared reflectance spectra 4 12 µm of typical lunar samples a laboratory study of the mid infrared spectral reflectance properties of typical apollo lunar rock and soil samples was conducted using a modern interferometric spectrometer the results show that characteristic spectral features exist in the 4 12 micrometer range that are diagnostic of rock composition and mineralogy especially for the plagioclase rich rocks and soils this is the first phase of a comprehensive infrared reflectance study underway to better understand the use of infrared emission spectroscopy for mapping the surface composition of the moon and other silicate bodies

dating the shock wave and thermal imprint of the giant vredefort impact south africa u pb geochronology of single grains of zircon and monazite has been used to date an episode of intense postimpact metamorphism in the core of the deeply eroded vredefort impact structure of south africa results from two basement units exposed in the uplifted central region indicate that the impact and a later pyroxene hornfels metamorphic event were penecontemporaneous at 2020 3 ma discovery of a synimpact to postimpact dike of norite that intruded at 2019 2 ma is the first recognition of mafic igneous activity related to impact the dike is either derived from a sudbury type impact melt layer since eroded or is the product of decompression melting of kaapvaal mantle in response to the ablation of 15 km of crust at the center of the crater the combined heating effects of the shock wave and impact triggered magmas are thought to have created the 300 km 2 thermal imprint of the asteroid collision with kaapvaal craton and account for the nearly coeval timing relationship between core metamorphism and shock revealed by this study

40ar 39ar ages of lunar impact glasses relationships among ar diffusivity chemical composition shape and size abstract lunar impact glasses which are quenched melts produced during cratering events on the moon have the potential to provide not only compositional information about both the local and regional geology of the moon but also information about the impact flux over time we present in this paper the results of 73 new 40ar 39ar analyses of well characterized inclusion free lunar impact glasses and demonstrate that size shape chemical composition fraction of radiogenic 40ar retained and cosmic ray exposure cre ages are important for 40ar 39ar investigations of these samples specifically analyses of lunar impact glasses from the apollo 14 16 and 17 landing sites indicate that retention of radiogenic 40ar is a strong function of post formation thermal history in the lunar regolith size and chemical composition this is because the ar diffusion coefficient at a constant temperature is estimated to decrease by 3 4 orders of magnitude with an increasing fraction of non bridging oxygens x nbo over the compositional range of most lunar impact glasses with compositions from feldspathic to basaltic based on these relationships lunar impact glasses with compositions and sizes sufficient to have retained 90 of their radiogenic ar during 750 ma of cosmic ray exposure at time integrated temperatures of up to 290 k have been identified and are likely to have yielded reliable 40ar 39ar ages of formation additionally 50 of the identified impact glass spheres have formation ages of 500 ma while 75 of the identified lunar impact glass shards and spheres have ages of formation 2000 ma higher thermal stresses in lunar impact glasses quenched from hyperliquidus temperatures are considered the likely cause of poor survival of impact glass spheres as well as the decreasing frequency of lunar impact glasses in general with increasing age the observed age frequency distribution of lunar impact glasses may reflect two processes i diminished preservation due to spontaneous shattering with age and ii preservation of a remnant population of impact glasses from the tail end of the terminal lunar bombardment having 40ar 39ar ages up to 3800 ma a protocol is described for selecting and analyzing lunar impact glasses

high closure temperatures of the u pb system in large apatites from the tin mountain pegmatite black hills south dakota usa abstract the cores of several large 1 2 cm apatites from the early proterozoic tin mountain pegmatite black hills south dakota have concordant u pb ages the age uncertainties of these samples are less than 5 ma the lead isotopic compositions of muscovite and k feldspar coexisting with the apatites were used for initial lead isotopic corrections the resulting u pb concordia ages agree well with u pb and pb pb isochron ages based solely on multiple fragments from single apatites this agreement justifies the use of coexisting muscovite and k feldspar for initial lead corrections the precision of these u pb ages is comparable to those of the u pb systems of more commonly analyzed minerals such as zircon monazite and sphene the estimated u pb closure temperature t c of these apatites is about 620 c this t c is in close agreement with the t c calculated for 0 5 cm diffusion radii and published data for diffusivity and activation energy of lead diffusion in apatite apatite can therefore yield high precision u pb ages that are close to its crystallization age in igneous rocks

inversion of gravity field inclination to map the basement relief of sedimentary basins this paper presents a method to map the basement relief of homogeneous sedimentary basins that does not require the knowledge of the basin density contrast to reach this task the proposed method relies on the invariance of the inclination of the anomalous gravity field with the density contrast caused by models constituted by two homogeneous media this invariance occurs because the density contrast appears as a constant factor in both vertical and horizontal gravity components therefore being canceled out when these components are divided during the evaluation of the field inclination for such media the field inclination is independent of the density contrast thus allowing the source geometry reconstruction even when the density contrast is unknown as the inclination is rarely measured the gravity anomaly i e the field vertical component is initially used to compute the horizontal component of the gravity field by applying a suitable linear transform the field inclination is estimated from both components and then used to invert the source geometry by fitting the inclination values under the geologic constraints attributed to the causative sources in this process the density contrast is not required nor introduced as an unknown parameter in the formulated inverse problem moreover it can be estimated later by solving a new inverse problem where the source geometry determined from the inverted inclination is fixed and the constant density contrast is determined by fitting the gravity anomaly this paper applies such ideas to map the basement relief of a sedimentary basin and to estimate its density contrast the inversion is implemented by a random search procedure that excludes extreme models and imposes constraints that the unknown interface is smooth everywhere and assumes known depth values at isolated points investigated by wells the proposed technique is tested with synthetic noisy data from homogeneous and heterogeneous basin models and is applied to invert a gravity profile from the reconcavo basin brazil the results from the real data application are compared with well data and previously published results

impact shocked zircons discovery of shock induced textures reflecting increasing degrees of shock metamorphism abstract textural effects specifically characteristic of shock metamorphism in zircons from impact environments have not been reported previously however planar deformation features pdf due to shock metamorphism are well documented in quartz and other mineral grains from these same environments an etching technique was developed that allows sem visualization of pdf and other probable shock induced textural features such as granular polycrystalline texture in zircons from a variety of impact shock environments these textural features in shocked zircons from k t boundary distal ejecta form a series related to increasing degrees of shock that should correlate with proportionate resetting of the u pb isotopic system

impact melting of lunar meteorite dhofar 458 evidence from polycrystalline texture and decomposition of zircon abstract dhofar 458 is a lunar meteorite consisting mainly of olivine plagioclase intergrowths pyroxene plagioclase intergrowths and plagioclase fragments pyroxene plagioclase globules are also common in this study we report the discovery of a polycrystalline zircon in this lunar meteorite the polycrystalline zircon contains small vesicles and rounded baddeleyite grains at its margin the polycrystalline and porous texture of the zircon indicates high pressure shock induced melting and degassing baddeleyite grains are derived from decomposition of zircon under high postshock temperature the shock features in zircon indicates that the shock pressure in dhofar 458 was greater than approximately 60 gpa and the postshock temperature greater than approximately 1700 c the polycrystalline and degassing texture and decomposition zircon also strongly indicates that dhofar 458 is a clast rich impact melt rock during this shock event most components were melted and grains of mafic minerals are interstitial to lath like plagioclase grains large fragments of olivine and chromite also formed polycrystalline texture at margins and chemically reequilibrated with surrounding melts we suggest that pyroxene plagioclase globules could be remains of melted target clasts whereas vesicles may form during shock induced degassing of the rock the u pb isotopic data plot on a well defined discordant line yielding the age of the zircon of 3434 15 ma 2 this age is interpreted as the time of the impact event that melted dhofar 458 and caused decomposition and recrystallization of this zircon in dhofar 458 which reset this zircon s u pb age

stable inversion of gravity anomalies of sedimentary basins with nonsmooth basement reliefs and arbitrary density contrast variations we present a new stable method for interpreting the basement relief of a sedimentary basin which delineates sharp discontinuities in the basement relief and incorporates any law known a priori for the spatial variation of the density contrast the subsurface region containing the basin is discretized into a grid of juxtaposed elementary prisms whose density contrasts are the parameters to be estimated any vertical line must intersect the basement relief only once and the mass deficiency must be concentrated near the earth s surface subject to the observed gravity anomaly being fitted within the experimental errors in addition upper and lower bounds on the density contrast of each prism are introduced a priori one of the bounds being zero and the method assigns to each elementary prism a density contrast which is close to either bound the basement relief is therefore delineated by the contact between the prisms with null and nonnull estimated density contrasts the latter occupying the upper part

geophysical inversion using approximate equality constraints current inversion methods estimating a physical property on a grid use two kinds of constraints 1 absolute constraints requiring that the solution vector be close to a prespecified vector as for example proximity to the null vector in the ridge regression and 2 relative constraints requiring that the elements of the solution vector be close to each other as for example smoothness imposed by methods requiring that spatial derivatives of the physical property be continuous using just absolute constraints may produce a biased solution conflicting with some true geological attributes of the source on the other hand using just relative constraints may be insufficient to stabilize the inversion we present a stable inversion method incorporating absolute constraints only at points where the physical property is known as for example outcroppings and boreholes elsewhere relative constraints are introduced according to a linear relationship for the spatial distribution of the physical property the proposed method is analogous to an interpolation method applied to the physical property distribution the interpolating function must satisfy some property like continuity and pass through the data the proposed method is versatile in incorporating not only factual but also indirect information such as continuity symmetry and trends in addition it may be applied both to linear and nonlinear problems the relevant results obtained from applying the method to synthetic potential field data were 1 ability to produce reliable mappings of the basement relief of a sedimentary basin from gravity data and of an areal distribution of magnetization using only smoothness constraints and restricted surface and borehole information 2 operational simplicity because of the solution insensitivity to the damping parameter the method is also applied to the bouguer anomaly over san jacinto graben california producing results consistent with previous interpretations

granitic magma transport by fracture propagation granitic magmas commonly ascend tens of kilometres from their source terranes to upper crustal emplacement levels or to the earth s surface apart from its obvious bearing on the interpretation of the geology and geochemistry of felsic igneous rocks the magma ascent mechanism critically affects any modelling of the metamorphic evolution of the upper lithosphere as well as its rheology we propose that in general granitic magmas ascend via propagating fractures as dykes in extremely short time periods long distance diapiric transport of granitoid magmas through crustal sections is not viable on thermal or mechanical grounds and there is an apparent total absence of field evidence for diapiric rise of such magmas even in supposed type localities neither the shapes nor internal or external characteristics of granitic plutons necessarily reveal anything about the transport of their precursor magmas these are purely arrival phenomena dictated by local structure kinematics and stress states based on existing numerical treatments of the problem we show that granitic magmas are apparently sufficiently inviscid to travel through fractures to high crustal levels without suffering thermal death by freezing for example a 2000 km3 granitic batholith can be inflated by a 1 km 3m 20 km deep dyke system in less than 900 years the model proposed has numerous far reaching petrological and rheological consequences some of which are outlined

sims u pb study of zircon from apollo 14 and 17 breccias implications for the evolution of lunar kreep abstract we report the results of a sims u pb study of 112 zircons from breccia samples from the apollo 14 and 17 landing sites zircon occurs in the breccia matrices as rounded irregular shaped broken and rarely euhedral grains and as constituent minerals in a variety of lithic clasts ranging in composition from ultra mafic and mafic rocks to highly evolved granophyres crystallisation of zircon in magmatic rocks is governed by the zirconium saturation in the melt as a consequence the presence of zircon in mafic rocks on the moon implies enrichment of their parent melts in the kreep component our sims results show that the ages of zircons from mafic to ultramafic clasts range from ca 4 35 ga to ca 4 00 ga demonstrating multiple generations of kreepy mafic and ultramafic magmas over this time period individual zircon clasts in breccia matrices have a similar age range to zircons in igneous clasts and all represent zircons that have been incorporated into the breccia from older parents the age distributions of zircons from breccias from both the apollo 14 and apollo 17 landing sites are essentially identical in the range 4 35 4 20 ga however whereas apollo 14 zircons additionally show ages from 4 20 to 3 90 ga no zircons from apollo 17 samples have primary ages less than ca 4 20 ga also in contrast to previous suggestions that the magmatism in the lunar crust is continuous our results show that the zircon age distribution is uneven with distinct peaks of magmatic activity at ca 4 35 ga ca 4 20 ga in apollo 14 and 17 and a possible third peak in zircons from apollo 14 at ca 4 00 ga to explain the differences in the zircon age distributions between the apollo 14 and 17 landing sites we propose that episodes of kreep magmatism were generated from a primary reservoir and that this reservoir contracted over time towards the centre of procellarum kreep terrane we attribute the peaks in kreep magmatism to impact induced emplacement of kreep magma from a primary mantle source or to a progressive thermal build up in the mantle source until the temperature exceeds the threshold for generation of kreep magma which is transported into the crust by an unspecified possibly plume like process

phosphate ages in apollo 14 breccias resolving multiple impact events with high precision u pb sims analyses abstract the u pb systems of apatite and merrillite grains within four separate apollo 14 impact melt breccia samples were analysed by secondary ion mass spectrometry no systematic difference was identified between the 207 pb 206 pb ages of the apatites and merrillites a combined 207 pb 206 pb age of 3927 2 ma 95 conf is determined for three of these samples 14305 103 3926 4 ma 14306 150 3926 6 ma 14314 13 3929 4 ma by combining these data with the ages previously obtained for zircons in apollo 12 impact melt breccia fragments and the lunar meteorite sau 169 a weighted average age of 3926 2 ma 95 conf is obtained which is attributed to the formation of the imbrium basin an age of 3943 5 ma is determined for the fourth breccia 14321 134 which is similar to ages of 3946 15 ma and 3958 19 ma obtained from several older phosphates in 14305 103 and 14314 13 the weighted average of these three older ages is 3944 4 ma 95 conf this is indistinguishable to the age 3938 4 ma 2 obtained for a different apollo 14 impact melt breccia in a previous study after investigating likely sources for this older 3940 ma age we conclude that the humorum or serenitatis basin forming events are likely candidates the potential identification of two large impact events within 15 myrs has important implications for the rate of lunar bombardment around 3 95 3 92 ga this study demonstrates the importance of high precision age determinations for interpreting the impact record of the moon as documented in lunar samples

petrogenesis and chronology of lunar meteorite northwest africa 4472 a kreepy regolith breccia from the moon northwest africa nwa 4472 is a polymict lunar regolith meteorite the sample is kreep rich high concentrations of potassium rare earth elements and phosphorus and comprises a heterogeneous array of lithic and mineral fragments these clasts and mineral fragments were sourced from a range of lunar rock types including the lunar high magnesian suite the high alkali suite kreep basalts mare basalts and a variety of impact crater environments the kreep rich nature of nwa 4472 indicates that the sample was ejected from regolith on the nearside of the moon in the procellarum kreep terrane and we have used lunar prospector gamma ray remote sensing data to show that the meteorite is most similar to and most likely sourced from regoliths adjacent to the imbrium impact basin u pb and pb pb age dates of nwa 4472 phosphate phases reveal that the breccia has sampled pre nectarian 4 35 ga rocks related to early episodes of kreep driven magmatism some younger phosphate u pb and pb pb age dates are likely indicative of impact resetting events at 3 9 4 ga consistent with the suggested timing of basin formation on the moon our study also shows that nwa 4472 has sampled impact melts and glass with an alkali depleted incompatible trace element rich high sc low rb th ratios low k compositional signature not related to typical apollo high k kreep or that sampled by kreepy lunar meteorite sayh al uhaymir sau 169 this provides evidence that there are numerous sources of kreep rich protoliths on the moon

high resolution u pb ages of ca phosphates in apollo 14 breccias implications for the age of the imbrium impact abstract previous age estimates of the imbrium impact range from 3770 to 3920 ma with the latter being the most commonly accepted age of this basin forming event the occurrence of ca phosphates i

generalized compact gravity inversion extending the compact gravity inversion technique by incorporating a priori information about the maximum compactness of the anomalous sources along several axes provides versatility thus the method may also incorporate information about limits in the axes lengths or greater concentration of mass along one or more directions the judicious combination of different constraints on the anomalous mass distribution allows the introduction of several kinds of a priori information about the arbitrary shape of the sources this method is particularly applicable to constant linear density sources such as mineralizations along faults and intruded sills dikes and laccoliths in a sedimentary basin the correct source density must be known with a maximum uncertainty of 40 percent otherwise the inversion produces thicker bodies for densities smaller than the true value and vice versa because of the limitations of the inverse gravity problem the proposed technique requires an empirical technique to analyze the sensitivity of solutions to uncertainties in the a priori information the proposed technique is based on a finite number of acceptable solutions presumably representative of the ambiguity region by using standard statistical techniques each parameter is assigned a coefficient measuring its uncertainty the known hematite and magnetite ore body shape in the vicinity of iron mountain mo was reproduced quite well using this inversion technique

a bayesian 3 d linear gravity inversion for complex density distributions application to the puysegur subduction system we have developed a linear 3 d gravity inversion method capable of modelling complex geological regions such as subduction margins our procedure inverts satellite gravity to determine the best fitting differential densities of spatially discretized subsurface prisms in a least squares sense we use a bayesian approach to incorporate both data error and prior constraints based on seismic reflection and refraction data based on these data gaussian priors are applied to the appropriate model parameters as absolute equality constraints to stabilize the inversion and provide relative equality constraints on the parameters we utilize a combination of first and second order tikhonov regularization which enforces smoothness in the horizontal direction between seismically constrained regions while allowing for sharper contacts in the vertical we apply this method to the nascent puysegur trench south of new zealand where oceanic lithosphere of the australian plate has underthrust puysegur ridge and solander basin on the pacific plate since the miocene these models provide insight into the density contrasts moho depth and crustal thickness in the region the final model has a mean standard deviation on the model parameters of about 17 kg m and a mean absolute error on the predicted gravity of about 3 9 mgal demonstrating the success of this method for even complex density distributions like those present at subduction zones the posterior density distribution versus seismic velocity is diagnostic of compositional and structural changes and shows a thin sliver of oceanic crust emplaced between the nascent thrust and the strike slip puysegur fault however the northern end of the puysegur ridge at the snares zone is predominantly buoyant continental crust despite its subsidence with respect to the rest of the ridge these features highlight the mechanical changes unfolding during subduction initiation

comparison of structures in zircons from lunar and terrestrial impactites there have been a number of reports of the presence of shock features such as planar fracturing and granulation the transformation of zircon to reidite and the breakdown of zircon to baddeleyite

the timing of basaltic volcanism at the apollo landing sites precise crystallisation ages have been determined for a range of apollo basalts from pb pb isochrons generated using secondary ion mass spectrometry sims analyses of multiple accessory phases including k feldspar k rich glass and phosphates the samples analysed in this study include five apollo 11 high ti basalts one apollo 14 high al basalt seven apollo 15 low ti basalts and five apollo 17 high ti basalts together with the samples analysed in two previous similar studies pb pb isochron ages have been determined for all of the major basaltic suites sampled during the apollo missions the accuracy of these ages has been assessed as part of a thorough review of existing age determinations for apollo basalts which reveals a good agreement with previous studies of the same samples as well as with average ages that have been calculated for the emplacement of the different basaltic suites at the apollo landing sites furthermore the precision of the new age determinations helps to resolve distinctions between the ages of different basaltic suites in more detail than was previously possible the proposed ages for the basaltic surface flows at the apollo landing sites have been reviewed in light of these new sample ages finally the data presented here have also been used to constrain the initial pb isotopic compositions of the mare basalts which indicate a significant degree of heterogeneity in the lunar mantle source regions even among the basalts collected at individual landing sites

south pole aitken basin magnetic anomalies evidence for the true polar wander of moon and a lunar dynamo reversal the analysis of the lunar prospector magnetic data over south pole aitken basin reveals two categories of magnetic anomalies with distinctly different polarities modeling the anomalies in terms of vertical prism source bodies shows two separate true polar wander paths of the moon one is driven by the giant surface mass deficiency resulted from the formation of the south pole aitken basin and the other by the giant surface mass concentrations mascons formed inside the large impact basins such as serenitatis and imbrium and a vast volcanic deposit on procellarum terrane a total of 100o true polar wander path suggests that the source bodies are formed and magnetized during a long period moreover the distinctly different polarities of the two categories of the anomalies supports the idea that the core dynamo underwent a reversal or shutdown and started up with a different polarity caused by the latter impacts the impact induced shock pressures of 10 20 gpa traveling inside the lunar core the appreciable angular momentum transfer to the lunar mantle by the impacting bodies and the impact induced stratification of the core probably reversed the polarity of the core dynamo we also model the north crisium magnetic anomaly extracted from the lunar prospector magnetic data the paleomagnetic pole position obtained for the source body reveals that the north crisium anomaly belongs to the first category of the anomalies

using a genetic algorithm for 3 d inversion of gravity data in fuerteventura canary islands the use of genetic algorithms in geophysical inverse problems is a relatively recent development and offers many advantages in dealing with the non linearity inherent in such applications we have implemented a genetic algorithm to efficiently invert a set of gravity data employing several fixed density contrasts this algorithm determines the geometry of the sources of the anomaly gravity field in a 3 d context the genetic algorithms based on darwin s theory of evolution seek the optimum solution from an initial population of models working with a set of parameters by means of modifications in successive iterations or generations this searching method traditionally consists of three operators selection crossover and mutation acting on each generation but we have added a further one which smoothes the obtained models in this way we have designed an efficient inversion gravity method confirmed by both a synthetic example and a real data set from the island of fuerteventura in the latter case we identify crustal structures related to the origin and evolution of the island the results show a clear correlation between the sources of gravity field in the model and the three volcanic complexes recognized in fuerteventura by other geological studies

a 4 2 billion year old impact basin on the moon u pb dating of zirconolite and apatite in lunar melt rock 67955 abstract a sharp rise in the flux of asteroid size bodies traversing the inner solar system at 3 9 ga has become a central tenet of recent models describing planetary dynamics and the potential habitability of early terrestrial environments the prevalence of 3 9 ga crystallization ages for lunar impact melt breccias and u pb isotopic compositions of lunar crustal rocks provide the primary evidence for a short lived cataclysmic episode of late heavy bombardment at that time here we report u pb isotopic compositions of zirconolite and apatite in coarse grained lunar melt rock 67955 measured by ion microprobe that date a basin scale impact melting event on the moon at 4 22 0 01 ga followed by entrainment within lower grade ejecta from a younger basin approximately 300 million yr later significant impacts prior to 3 9 ga are also recorded by lunar zircons although the magnitudes of those events are difficult to establish other isotopic evidence such as 40 ar 39 ar ages of granulitic lunar breccias regolith fragments and clasts extracted from fragmental breccias and re os isotopic compositions of lunar metal is also suggestive of impact related thermal events in the lunar crust during the period 4 1 4 3 ga we conclude that numerous large impactors hit the moon prior to the canonical 3 9 ga cataclysm that some of those pre cataclysm impacts were similar in size to the younger lunar basins and that the oldest preserved lunar basins are likely to be significantly older than 3 9 ga this provides sample based support for dynamical models capable of producing older basins on the moon and discrete populations of impactors an extended period of basin formation implies a less intense cataclysm at 3 9 ga and therefore a better opportunity for preservation of early habitable niches and hadean crust on the earth a diminished cataclysm at 3 9 ga suggests that the similarity in the age of the oldest terrestrial continental crust with the canonical lunar cataclysm is likely to be coincidental with no genetic significance

partitioning in ree saturating minerals theory experiment and modelling of whitlockite apatite and evolution of lunar residual magmas we present compositions including rees determined by ion microprobe of apatite and whitlockite in lunar rock assemblages rich in incompatible trace elements total concentrations of ree oxides in whitlockites range from 9 13 wt and those in apatites range from 0 15 to 1 wt ratios of ree concentrations in whitlockite to those in coexisting apatite range from 10 to 60 the distribution of mg and fe between apatite and whitlockite is correlated to that of coexisting mafic silicates magnesium is strongly preferred by whitlockite and fe is preferred by apatite incorporation of rees in whitlockite is dominated by the coupled substitution of 2ree3 in ca b sites vacancy in ca iia for 2ca 2 in ca b sites and ca2 na in ca iia other substitutions account for only a small portion of the rees in whitlockite over the observed concentration range thus ree concentrations become partially saturated as the primary substitution approaches its stoichiometric limit of two rees per fifty six oxygens leading to reduced whitlockite melt distribution coefficients e g decreasing from twenty five to ten for nd the ree concentrations of lunar residual melts are not depleted by whitlockite crystallization in assemblages consisting mainly of other minerals in typical proportions distribution coefficients for the rees in lunar apatite appear to be low and variable e g 0 2 0 8 for nd variations in the modal ratio of whitlockite to apatite specifically the abundance of whitlockite lead to a range of ree concentrations in the phosphates and variations in the magnitude of ree concentration ratios between whitlockite and apatite if apatite crystallizes before whitlockite or in the absence of whitlockite as textures in several samples indicate then apatite zoned in rees and apatite crystals of different ree concentrations may occur in a given sample provided there is some amount of fractional crystallization and apatite does not later equilibrate this may occur because in the absence of whitlockite in the crystallizing assemblage the rees are highly incompatible relative to the crystalline assemblage so ree concentrations in lunar residual melts increase strongly during small increments of late stage crystallization once whitlockite begins to crystallize bulk distribution coefficients for the rees although still 1 are only mildly incompatible so the change in ree concentrations of residual melts with further crystallization is small consistent with the lack of ree zoning in whitlockite the ree concentrations in lunar whitlockites are modelled as resulting mainly from equilibrium crystallization of the assemblages in which they occur metasomatism or other secondary metamorphic processes are not indicated local melt pocket equilibrium at advanced stages of crystallization may lead to variable ree concentrations and variable whitlockite apatite concentration ratios within the same sample parent melts with extremely high ree concentrations are not required in order to crystallize ree rich lunar whitlockite if modal proportions of whitlockite are low

ages of pristine noritic clasts from lunar breccias 15445 and 15455 abstract rb sr and sm nd isotopic studies were undertaken of two apollo 15 breccias 15445 and 15455 collected near spur crater on the apennine front seven pristine lithic clasts including four norites one anorthositic norite one troctolitic anorthosite and one spinel troctolite as well as a matrix sample of 15445 were analysed in addition a k ar age determination was also made for a plagioclase separate from a different anorthositic norite clast sm nd isotopic data of a pristine mg norite sample 15445 17 from the large white clast b of breccia 15445 yielded a precise internal isochron age of 4 46 0 07 ga for 147 sm 0 00654 ga 1 and an initial 143 nd 144 nd of 0 506058 0 000078 normalized to 148 nd 144 nd 0 24308 corresponding to an initial nd of 0 71 however sm nd isotopic results of another mg norite sample 15445 247 chipped from the same clast b about 1 cm away from 15445 17 yielded a significantly younger isochron age of 4 28 0 03 ga and a higher initial 143 nd 144 nd of 0 506246 0 000037 corresponding to an initial nd of 0 35 the sm nd data indicate that clast b is heterogeneous and contains at least two similar lithologies the rb sr isotopic systems were severely disturbed for both norites no useful isochron ages were observed the sm nd age and nd data for a 15 mg norites 15445 17 and 15445 247 a 17 mgnorite 78236 and two mg gabbronorites 73255 27 45 and 67667 are clearly resolved from each other four distinct parental magmas are required for derivation of these two major groups of mg suite noritic rocks the rb sr isotopic system of an anorthositic norite clast 15455 228 was slightly disturbed and isotopic data defined an isochron age of 4 59 0 13 ga for 87 rb 0 0139 ga 1 or 4 55 0 13 ga for 87 rb 0 01402 ga 1 the corresponding initial 87 sr 86 sr for the rock is 0 69899 0 00006 and is in satisfactory agreement with the luni value of nyquist et al 1974 the sm nd system is more disturbed than the rb sr system for this rock a tie line between whole rock samples and a pyroxene separate gives a sm nd age of 4 53 0 29 ga which is in nominal agreement with the rb sr isochron age the 39ar40ar age of a plagioclase separate of the rock has a weighted average value of 3 83 ga suggesting that the age was reset by the imbrium impact event probably the sm nd and rb sr systems of the clast were also partly reset by this event our age results indicate that some mg suite rocks are as old as ferroan anorthosite suite rocks furthermore age data of three major crustal rocks a mg suite a ferroan anorthosite suite and an evolved suite show that they all have variable ages these observations are difficult to explain by the magma ocean hypothesis alone petrogenetic processes such as production of mg suite rocks by serial magmatism walker 1983 of ferroan anorthosite suite rocks by multiple diapiric intrusions longhi and ashwal 1985 and evolved suite rocks by continuous magmatism meyer et al 1988 1989 probably all played a role these processes seem to be able to accommodate the wide ranges of ages and different origins observed for lunar crustal rocks

rayleigh wave tomography of the northeastern margin of the tibetan plateau abstract the convergence between the indian continent and the southern margin of eurasia has eventually led to the growth of the tibetan plateau eastward various models have suggested that a large scale flow in the lower crust or and the asthenosphere is responsible for the uplift of eastern tibet it has also been suggested that the continental flow may move around the thick lithosphere of the ordos plateau and the sichuan basin in order to investigate the validity of the crust mantle flow and its possible path we have used rayleigh wave tomography with sensitivity kernels to estimate both the phase velocity structure 20 143 s and the shear wave velocity structure 0 200 km across the northeastern margin of the tibetan plateau from the surface to 100 km our shear wave velocity model shows a prominent low velocity anomaly beneath northeastern tibet suggestive of a warm lithosphere its boundary lies at 105 e longitude which borders the western ordos plateau and sichuan basin from 125 km to 200 km our shear wave velocity model shows a low velocity channel beneath the qilian qinling orogen that lies between the ordos and sichuan blocks this channel may represent the asthenosphere given the fact that the lithosphere is 120 150 km thick in northeastern tibet and the qinling orogen we also inverted for the anisotropy parameters in the study area simultaneously with the velocity parameters the dominant fast direction is nww see generally consistent with the sks splitting results the calculated shear strain from gps and the fault slip rate measurements furthermore the fast directions in our anisotropic model vary only slightly with periods and the anisotropy magnitudes at long periods 100 143 s are large and exceed those at short medium periods 20 80 s indicating potentially although not necessarily vertically coherent deformation from the crust to the asthenosphere and possibly large deformation in the asthenosphere the deformation seems to be linked to the southeastward extrusion tectonics caused by the collision boundary force

revisiting the field geology of taurus littrow abstract integration of apollo 17 field observations and photographs sample investigations lunar reconnaissance orbiter camera images chandrayaan 1 moon mineralogy mapper m3 spectra and miniature radio frequency mini rf s band radar images provides new insights into the geology of the valley of taurus littrow on the moon connecting the various remote observations to sample data enables a set of new conclusions to be drawn regarding the geological evolution of the valley structural considerations and published and recalculated 40ar 39ar analyses of samples from the north massif and the sculptured hills indicate that the crisium basin formed about 3 93 ga the serenitatis basin about 3 82 ga and the imbrium basin no earlier than 3 82 ga and no later than the average of 3 72 ga for 33 age dates from samples of the valley s mare basalts strong evidence continues to support the conclusion of others lucchitta 1972 spudis et al 2011 fassett et al 2012 that the sculptured hills physiographic unit consists of imbrium ejecta interpretation of m3 spectral data and apollo 17 samples indicate that rock units of the sculptured hills consist of a largely coherent mg suite pluton lroc nac stereo images and mini rf data indicate the presence of several exposed pyroclastic fissures across the sculptured hills rim boulders at camelot crater constitute nearly in situ wall rocks of that crater rather than ejecta and provide an opportunity for investigations of remanent magnetic field orientation at the time of the eruption of late mare basalt lavas in the valley paleomagnetic field orientation information also may be obtained relative to melt breccia contacts in north massif boulders that suggest original horizontal orientations lroc images indicate the existence of two temporally separate light mantle avalanche deposits the origin potential flow mechanisms and geology of the youngest avalanche from the south massif have been clarified the existence of two distinct light mantle avalanches raises doubt about the association of either light mantle avalanche with secondary impacts related to the tycho impact event alternatively the lee lincoln thrust fault appears to have triggered the second light mantle avalanche between 70 and 110 ma a simple structural analysis shows that this thrust fault dips 20 25 to the southwest where it crosses the north massif and to the west where it crosses the valley floor mini rf data reveal a line of reduced reflections roughly perpendicular to contours on the north massif about 3 km to the east of the lee lincoln fault although this line is possibly an older ancillary fault lroc nac stereo images indicate that it may be best explained as a pyroclastic fissure a debris flow of dark apparent pyroclastic ash lies below the southeast end of the potential fissure finally young lunar impact glass sample 70019 has been precisely located within lroc nac images and oriented for the first time using 60 mm f l sample documentation photographs sample 70019 can now be employed in lunar paleomagnetic field orientation studies

interpreting u pb data from primary and secondary features in lunar zircon in this paper we describe primary and secondary microstructures and textural characteristics found in lunar zircon and discuss the relationships between these features and the zircon u pb isotopic systems and the significance of these features for understanding lunar processes lunar zircons can be classified according to i textural relationships between zircon and surrounding minerals in the host breccias ii the internal microstructures of the zircon grains as identified by optical microscopy cathodoluminescence cl imaging and electron backscattered diffraction ebsd mapping and iii results of in situ ion microprobe analyses of the th u pb isotopic systems primary zircon can occur as part of a cogenetic mineral assemblage lithic clast or as an individual mineral clast and is unzoned or has sector and or oscillatory zoning the age of primary zircon is obtained when multiple ion microprobe analyses across the polished surface of the grain give reproducible and essentially concordant data a secondary set of microstructures superimposed on primary zircon include localised recrystallised domains localised amorphous domains crystal plastic deformation planar deformation features and fractures and are associated with impact processes the first two secondary microstructures often yield internally consistent and close to concordant u pb ages that we interpret as dating impact events others secondary microstructures such as planar deformation features crystal plastic deformation and micro fractures can provide channels for pb diffusion and result in partial resetting of the u pb isotopic systems

shock behavior of zircon phase transition to scheelite structure and decomposition abstract both single crystal and powdered specimens of zircon zrsio4 were shocked to peak pressures between 30 and 94 gpa using the gun method and specimens recovered were studied by means of x ray diffraction analysis transmission electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy transformation to the scheelite structure started above 30 gpa and was completed above 53 gpa in the case of single crystal specimens tetragonal unit cell parameters of the scheelite type zrsio4 at room condition are measured to bea 4 7341 1 a c 10 51 1 a c a 2 219 2 andv 235 5 2 a3 which is smaller than that of the zircon type by 9 9 the recovered scheelite type zrsio4 reverts to the zircon type after rapid heating to 1200 c at room pressure this transformation from the zircon type to the scheelite type is unique in that it is fast displacive like but does not reverse tetragonal zro2 was detected as decomposition product in the single crystal specimen shocked to 94 gpa and further confirmed in a powdered specimen shocked to 53 gpa where enhancement of temperature is expected because of high porosity decomposition behavior of zircon observed in natural shock events is discussed on the basis of present experimental results

the case for a younger imbrium basin new 40ar 39ar ages of apollo 14 rocks petrographically and chemically well characterized rocks of the apollo 14 landing site 12 impact melt breccias 3 clast free impact melt rocks 2 granulitic rocks 1 cataclastic noritic anorthosite 1 shocked gabbronorite 1 mare basalt and 1 plagioclase single crystal have been dated by the 40ar 39ar technique the samples represent two different formations at the apollo 14 site 1 small lithic clasts 10 specimens from fragmental breccia 14063 ejected from the 26 ma old cone crater and one clast mare basalt from cone crater soil 14140 and 2 large rock samples 10 specimens collected throughout the regolith of the landing site the first group of samples has exposure ages close to 26 ma and 40ar 39ar ages ranging from 3 86 to 4 09 ga which indicates that breccia 14063 was assembled 3 86 ga ago the second group of samples displays lower 40ar 39ar ages ranging from 3 73 to 3 85 ga we interpret breccia 14063 as part of a nectarian megabreccia unit which was incorporated into the fra mauro formation as a megablock by secondary mass wasting of the ejecta blanket of a local pre imbrian crater the remaining samples are thought to represent clasts of the apollo 14 subregolith basement megabreccia defined as the fra mauro formation consequently the reported ages of these clasts confirm previous suggestions that the fra mauro formation and therefore the imbrium basin is only 3 75 ga old and not 3 85 ga as commonly assumed

the effect of 1 9 and 1 4 ga impact events on 4 3 ga zircon and phosphate from an apollo 15 melt breccia 1 zircon and phosphate grains from matrix and quartz monzodiorite qmd clasts in two thin sections of apollo 15 impact melt breccia 15405 were investigated using optical microscopy scanning electron microscopy raman spectroscopy and ion microprobe u pb analyses u pb results for zircon grains with well defined cathodoluminescence zoning define the primary i e magmatic crystallization age as 4330 6 ma 2 one zircon consists of a preserved inner part surrounded by a porous polycrystalline granular mixture of zircon and baddeleyite indicating incomplete reaction of the zircon with melt previous work showed that this microstructure could form at pressures above 60 gpa and a temperature close to 1700 c and is evidence of an impact related melting event the u pb system of this grain indicates a resetting event at 1940 10 ma interpreted as the age of this impact impact 1 other zircon and phosphate grains also have disturbed u pb systems showing an even younger reset event impact 2 at 1407 57 ma evidence of impact is supported by microstructures of zircon and baddeleyite such as secondary rims these impacts are tentatively identified as those having formed autolycus and aristillius craters

annealing of radiation damage in zircons from apollo 14 impact breccia 14311 implications for the thermal history of the breccia impact breccia 14311 was collected from the apollo 14 landing site as a potential sample of the underlying fra mauro formation published zircon u pb ages of 4000 ma date the source material of the breccia and the apatite u pb age of 3940 ma is interpreted as dating thermal resetting of the apatite u pb systems in this contribution we present new age information on the late stage thermal history of the breccia based on the annealing of radiation damage in the zircons from raman spectroscopic determination of the radiation damage within sims analytical spots on the zircons and the u and th concentrations determined on these spots we demonstrate that the radiation damage in the zircons has been annealed and we estimate the age of annealing at 3410 80 ma this age is interpreted as a cooling age following heating of the breccia to above the annealing temperature of 230 c for stage 1 radiation damage in zircon but below the temperature needed to reset the u pb system of apatite 500 c it is proposed that this thermal event was associated with the prolonged period of mare volcanism from 3150 to 3750 ma that generated massive basalt flows in the vicinity of the sample location

annealing history of zircons from apollo 14083 and 14303 impact breccias abstract breccia boulders scattered around the 25 ma cone crater near the apollo 14 landing site provide a potential source of material ejected from the underlying fra mauro formation which is int

apparent magnetization mapping using entropic regularization a new apparent magnetization mapping method on the horizontal plane combines minimization of first order entropy with maximization of zeroth order entropy of the estimated magnetization the interpretation model is a grid of vertical juxtaposed prisms in both horizontal directions to estimate the magnetization of the prisms assume that the top and bottom of the magnetic sources are horizontal minimization of the first order entropy favors solutions with sharp borders and the maximization of zeroth order entropy prevents the tendency of the estimated source to become a single prism with large magnetization thus a judicious combination of both constraints can lead to solutions characterized by regions with virtually constant magnetizations separated by sharp discontinuities this is applied to synthetic data from simulated intrusive bodies in sediments that have horizontal tops by comparing the results with those obtained with the common tikhonov regularization smoothness constraint method it is shown that both methods produce good and equivalent locations of the central positions of the sources however entropic regularization delineates the boundaries of the bodies with greater detail both the proposed and the smoothness constraints are applied to real anomaly data over a magnetic skarn in butte valley nevada u s a entropic regularization produced an estimated magnetization distribution with sharper boundaries smaller volume and higher apparent magnetization as compared with results produced by incorporating the smoothness constraint

pinpointing the source of a lunar meteorite implications for the evolution of the moon the lunar meteorite sayh al uhaymir 169 consists of an impact melt breccia extremely enriched with potassium rare earth elements and phosphorus thorium 32 7 parts per million ppm uranium 8 6 ppm potassium oxide 0 54 weight percent and adherent regolith the isotope systematics of the meteorite record four lunar impact events at 3909 13 million years ago ma 2800 ma 200 ma and 0 34 ma and collision with earth sometime after 9 7 1 3 thousand years ago with these data we can link the impact melt breccia to imbrium and pinpoint the source region of the meteorite to the lalande impact crater

probable age of autolycus and calibration of lunar stratigraphy 39 ar 40 ar analyses of three petrographically distinct shocked apollo 15 kreep i e high k rare earth element p and other trace element contents basalt samples demonstrate that a major impact event affected all three samples at about 2 1 ga the copernican system craters aristillus and autolycus are to the north a ray from one of them crosses the landing site and had been suggested prior to the apollo 15 mission as a source of material that could be used to date these craters autolycus the older of the two is in a particularly appropriate terrain and is the most likely source of the 2 1 ga heating and delivery event with this calibration point and if autolycus really is a copernican crater the copernican system lasted twice as long as has previously been suggested furthermore the moon was not subjected to a constant cratering rate over the past 3 b y the average rate in the preceding eratosthenian must have been twice that in the copernican

concept of effective density key to gravity depth determinations for sedimentary basins the gravity anomaly observed over a layered sedimentary basin is close to that calculated over a basin with the same configuration and depth but filled by homogeneous sediments with density equal to the effective weighted average density of the real layered basin therefore it is possible to calculate the effective density contrast of a basin from the residual gravity anomaly over it if the depth of the basin is known at least at one point assuming a mathematical function for density depth dependence an expression for the gravity depth dependence using the infinite slab bouguer formula can be developed this expression makes it possible to calculate the depth of a basin or an isopach map from gravity data an exponential function and a new hyperbolic density depth function and their gravity depth functions are analyzed and implemented for determining the depths of basins from gravity data for the san jacinto graben california and the tucson basin southern arizona the hyperbolic functions are m

thermal infrared 2 5 13 5 μm spectroscopic remote sensing of igneous rock types on particulate planetary surfaces fundamental molecular vibration bands are significantly diminished by scattering thus such bands in spectra of fine particulate regoliths i e dominated by 5 m particles or regoliths displaying a similar scale of porosity are difficult to use for mineralogical or rock type identification consequently other spectral features have been sought that may be more useful in spectroscopic remote sensing of composition we find that mineralogical information is retained in overtones and combination tones of the fundamental molecular vibrations in the 3 0 to 7 0 m region but that relatively few minerals have a sufficiently distinctive band structure to be unambiguously identified with currently available techniques more significantly identification of general rock type as defined by the scfm chemical index scfm sio2 sio2 cao feo mgo is possible using spectral features associated with the principal christiansen frequency and with a region of relative transparency between the si o stretching and bending bands however environmental factors may affect the appearance and wavelengths of these features finally prominent absorption bands may result from the presence of relatively small amounts of water hydroxyl or carbonate because absorption bands exhibited by these materials in the 2 7 to 4 0 m region where silicate spectra are otherwise featureless increase strongly in spectral contrast with decreasing particle size such materials are thus detectable in very small amounts in a particulate regolith composed predominantly of silicate minerals

re examination of the formation ages of the apollo 16 regolith breccias abstract the lunar regolith is exposed to irradiation from the solar wind and to bombardment by asteroids comets and inter planetary dust fragments of projectiles in the lunar regolith can potentially provide a direct measure of the sources of exogenous material being delivered to the moon constraining the temporal flux of their delivery helps to address key questions about the bombardment history of the inner solar system here we use a revised antiquity calibration after eugster et al 2001 that utilises the ratio of trapped 40 ar 36 ar parentless 40 ar derived from radioactive decay of 40 k against solar wind derived 36 ar to semi quantitatively calculate the timing of the assembly of the apollo 16 regolith breccias we use the trapped 40 ar 36 ar ratios reported by mckay et al 1986 our model indicates that the apollo 16 ancient regolith breccia population was formed between 3 8 and 3 4 ga consistent with regoliths developed and assembled after the imbrium basin forming event at 3 85 ga and during a time of declining basin forming impacts the material contained within the ancient samples potentially provides evidence of impactors delivered to the moon in the late imbrian epoch we also find that a young regolith population was assembled probably by local impacts in the apollo 16 area in the eratosthenian period between 2 5 and 2 2 ga providing insights to the sources of post basin bombardment the soil like regolith breccia population and the majority of local apollo 16 soils were likely closed in the last 2 ga and therefore potentially provide an archive of projectile types in the eratosthenian and copernican periods

comparative zircon u pb geochronology of impact melt breccias from apollo 12 and lunar meteorite sau 169 and implications for the age of the imbrium impact abstract the ages of zircons from high th impact melt breccias imbs from meteorite sayh al uhaymir sau 169 and from rock fragments in soil samples from apollo 12 have been determined using the shrimp ii ion microprobe the imbs are very similar to each other in chemistry mineralogy and texture and the zircons from the kreep rich high th crystalline impact melt have similar u and th contents and identical ages within uncertainties of 3920 13 2 ma sau 169 and 3914 7 2 ma apollo 12 the age results support the idea that the high th imbs apollo 12 and sau 169 formed in the same impact event the similarity of composition and age suggest that sau 169 and the high th imb fragments of apollo 12 originated from the same area of the procellarum kreep terrane we interpret the age of zircon grains in the apollo 12 high th imb as a precise and direct determination of the age of the imbrium impact this age is significantly older than the commonly cited age of 3 85 ga but is similar to recent determinations from sims u pb dating of apollo 14 apatite grains and with anticipated revision of ages by 40 ar 39 ar and 87 rb 86 sr the present zircon 207 pb 206 pb age is the first direct zircon age determination of the imbrium impact event from an apollo sample previous measurements of zircon ages of apollo imbs have recorded events pre dating the imbrium basin forming event

evidence for metasomatism of the lunar highlands and the origin of whitlockite abstract the presence of rare earth element rich ree rich whitlockite in the relatively primitive ree poor lunar highlands presents a paragenetic problem to the petrologist comparison with occurrences in mare basalt mesostasis assemblages demonstrates that whitlockite in the lunar highlands has not resulted from the crystallization of the residual interstitial melt furthermore by the nature of ree partition coefficients for whitlockite it is demonstrated that they cannot have crystallized from kreepy melts rather we suggest that the only lunar melt which contains high enough ree abundances is the basic immiscible melt derived from a kreepy liquid we envisage that whitlockite found in the lunar highlands is a post cumulus metasomatic phase precipitated from a melt formed when urkreep underwent silicate liquid immiscibility the basic immiscible melt thus produced was able to percolate through the lunar highlands due to its low viscosity and act as a metasomatizing agent apatite is occasionally found as either epitactic overgrowths on the whitlockites mantled by whitlockite or in composite grains with whitlockite in all cases these apatites contain much lower ree contents than the corresponding whitlockite experimental results suggest either 1 1 apatite and whitlockite have essentially the same ree kd s 2 2 apatite has lower ree kd s than whitlockite both scenarios can be used to explain certain apatite whitlockite associations for example apatite and whitlockite having the same ree kd s can explain the situation where apatite appears to have crystallized after whitlockite this is because apatite crystallization requires a certain level of halogens in the melt these levels are only realized after whitlockite crystallization which enriches the residual melt in f and cl but depletes it in the rees therefore when apatite crystallizes it will contain lower ree abundances than whitlockite however relationships where apatite and whitlockite appear to have co crystallized or apatite crystallized before whitlockite require apatite to have lower ree kd s even if both experimental results are correct the whitlockite parental melt still requires ree abundances greater than in kreep urkreep the parental melt has similar ree abundances to a calculated reepy immiscible melt from kreep urkreep

a record of ancient cataclysm in modern sand shock microstructures in detrital minerals from the vaal river vredefort dome south africa the record of terrestrial meteorite impacts is fragmentary because most impact structures and ejecta are removed by erosion or buried discovery of the missing impact record from hadean to present may be advanced through identifi cation of residual shocked detritus to evaluate which shocked minerals survive erosion and sedimentary transport we investigated modern sands from the vaal river in south africa where it crosses the 2 02 ga vredefort dome the largest terrestrial impact structure known to date shocked minerals were identifi ed in all sediment samples including from the vaal channel and tributaries within the structure in transmitted light detrital quartz preserves discontinuous decorated planar features previously identifi ed as brazil twins which are readily visible as bright continuous features in cathodoluminescence images detrital zircons preserve fi ve orientations of planar fractures pfs which can produce dramatically offset growth zoning and apparent rotation of subgrains other zircons contain fi lled fractures that may represent a new shock microstructure detrital monazite preserves four orientations of pfs and many grains contain oscillatoryzoned shocked zircon inclusions which thus represent shocked inclusions within shocked accessory grains zircon and monazite with granular texture were also identifi ed this study is proof of the concept that shocked minerals can be identifi ed in sediments up to 2 billion years after an impact event and it demonstrates their potential for preserving evidence of ancient impacts the recognition of a new geological repository for impact evi dence provides a means for identifying distal shocked detritus from eroded structures of any age and may be particularly relevant to early earth studies

the late heavy bombardment heavily cratered surfaces on the moon mars and mercury show that the terrestrial planets were battered by an intense bombardment during their first billion years or more but the timing sources and dynamical implications of these impacts are controversial the late heavy bombardment refers to impact events that occurred after stabilization of the planetary lithospheres such that they could be preserved as craters and basins lunar melt rocks and meteorite shock ages point toward a discrete episode of elevated impact flux between 3 5 and 4 0 4 2 ga and a relative quiescence between 4 0 4 2 and 4 4 ga evidence from precambrian impact spherule layers suggests that a long lived tail of terrestrial impactors lasted to 2 0 2 5 ga dynamical models that include populations residual from primary accretion and destabilized by giant planet migration can potentially account for the available observations although all have pros and cons the most parsimonious solution to match constraints is a hybrid mode

3 1 ga crystallization age for magnesian and ferroan gabbro lithologies in the northwest africa 773 clan of lunar meteorites abstract the northwest africa nwa 773 clan of meteorites is a group of paired and or petrogenetically related stones that contain at least six different lithologies magnesian gabbro ferroan gabbro anorthositic gabbro olivine phyric basalt regolith breccia and polymict breccia uranium lead dates of baddeleyite in the magnesian gabbro ferroan gabbro and components within breccia lithologies of paired lunar meteorites nwa 773 nwa 3170 nwa 6950 and nwa 7007 indicate a chronologic link among the meteorites and their components a total of 50 baddeleyite grains were analyzed and yielded weighted average 207pb 206pb dates of 3119 4 9 4 n 27 3108 20 n 13 and 3113 15 n 10 ma for the magnesian gabbro ferroan gabbro and polymict breccia lithologies respectively a weighted average date of 3115 6 6 8 ma n 47 50 was calculated from the baddeleyite dates for all lithologies a single large zircon grain found in a lithic clast in the polymict breccia of nwa 773 yielded a u pb concordia date of 3953 18 ma indicating a much more ancient source for some of the components within the breccia a u pb concordia date of apatite and merrillite grains from the magnesian gabbro and polymict breccia lithologies in nwa 773 is 3112 33 ma identical to the baddeleyite dates magnesian and ferroan gabbros as well as the dated baddeleyite and ca phosphate bearing detritus in the breccia lithologies formed during the same igneous event at about 3115 ma these data also strengthen proposed petrogenetic connections between magnesian and ferroan gabbro lithologies which represent some of the youngest igneous rocks known from the moon

combined modeling and smooth inversion of gravity data from a faulted basement relief abstractwe have combined modeling and gravity inversion to estimate an overall smooth but locally discontinuous basement relief of a sedimentary basin through an initial global smoothness solution the method indicates fault positions that may be accepted or modified then the interpreter specifies the fault dip and a tentative fault slip so the fault plane is fixed on the estimated relief the segments of the current interpreted relief that are not accepted faults are estimated through smoothness inversion and the response of the current estimated relief is computed the slip of the fault being incorporated in the estimated relief is then modified interactively until the solution presents no side lobes about the fault extremes the process is repeated for all faults the iteration stops when the tentative solution becomes compatible with the geologic knowledge of the area and produces an acceptable data fit the method was applied to data produced by a simulated graben defined by step faults dipping

analysis of lunar pyroclastic deposit feo abundances by lro diviner 1 thermal infrared reflectance spectra of rock forming minerals include a prominent minimum near 8 m known as the christiansen feature cf the inflection point wavelength is sensitive to the degree of polymerization of silicates which is strongly influenced by major cations notably iron in the minerals laboratory spectra of lunar soils demonstrate that the cf location is closely correlated to the sample s bulk feo abundance across the full range of apollo soil samples including pyroclastic glass this correlation is the basis for estimating lunar surface feo abundances using orbital thermal infrared measurements the diviner lunar radiometer experiment on the lunar reconnaissance orbiter includes three thermal infrared channels selected to determine the cf positions for sites across the lunar surface diviner measurements are used to derive feo abundances in the aristarchus sulpicius gallus and rima fresnel pyroclastic deposits the calculated feo abundances for aristarchus and sulpicius gallus lie within the compositional range of feo rich pyroclastic glasses but outside the range of most mare soils supporting the interpretations of these deposits as glass rich the calculated feo abundance for the rima fresnel deposit is close to that of mare soils supporting a contention that this deposit is dominated by basaltic fragments rather than glass the diviner measurements hold the potential to determine feo abundances in many lunar pyroclastic deposits a better understanding of these compositions will provide insight into the magmatic history and composition of the lunar interior as well as an enhanced inventory of potential resources for future human exploration

modification of caloris ejecta blocks by long lived mass wasting a volatile driven process abstract the caloris basin is the largest well preserved impact basin on mercury as such caloris ejecta afford us an opportunity to study material from mercury s deep interior with remote sensing we have made observations of the geomorphology colour distribution and flank slopes of the circum caloris knobs our observations suggest that these circum caloris knobs are modified ejecta blocks from the caloris impact high resolution messenger images show that knobs are conical and relatively uncratered compared with the surrounding plains which implies the knobs have undergone resurfacing we have observed material that has sloughed off knobs superposing impact craters that demonstrably postdate the caloris impact which requires some knob modification to have been more recent we have observed hollows depressions in mercury s surface generally believed to have been caused by volatile loss on and closely associated with several knobs which indicates that many knobs contain volatile material and that knob modification could extend into mercury s recent past our measurements show that knob flanks typically have slopes of 21 which is steep for a mound of unconsolidated material that was originally emplaced 3 8 ga the conical shape of knobs their steep slopes the dearth of superposed craters on knobs and knob superposition relationships with other landforms suggest that caloris ejecta blocks of arbitrary original shape were modified into their present shapes by long lived mass wasting mass wasting must have dominated over impact gardening which would have produced domal morphologies only we suggest that mass wasting was probably driven by volatile loss in a manner analogous to terrestrial landforms called molards if the circum caloris knobs are analogous to molards then they represent a landform and a process hitherto undocumented on mercury with implications for the volatile content of the planet s interior these knobs therefore are prime targets for bepicolombo which could search for fresh failures and volatile exposures in the knobs

diverse impactors in apollo 15 and 16 impact melt rocks evidence from osmium isotopes and highly siderophile elements abstract concentrations of highly siderophile elements hse and 187 os 188 os isotopic compositions for eleven impact related rocks from the apollo 15 and 16 landing sites are reported and combined with existing geochronological data to investigate the chemical nature and temporal changes in the large impactors implicated in the formation of the lunar basins data for the samples all define linear trends on plots of hse versus ir concentrations whose slopes likely reflect the relative hse compositions of the dominant impactors that formed the rocks the inferred imbrium basin impactor that generated apollo 15 impact melt rocks 15445 and 15455 was characterized by modestly suprachondritic 187 os 188 os ru ir pt ir and pd ir ratios diverse impactor components are revealed in the apollo 16 impact melt rocks the 187 os 188 os and hse ir ratios of the impactor components in melt rocks 60635 63595 and 68416 with reported ages 4 0 ga by contrast the impactor components in melt rocks 60235 62295 and 67095 with reported ages of 3 9 ga are characterized by suprachondritic 187 os 188 os and hse ir ratios similar to the apollo 15 impact melt rocks and may also sample the imbrium impactor three lithic clasts from regolith breccias 60016 and 65095 also with 3 9 ga ages contain multiple impactor components of which the dominant composition is considerably more suprachondritic than those implicated for imbrium and serenitatis apollo 17 impactors the dominant composition recorded in these rocks was most likely inherited from a pre imbrium impactor consideration of composition versus age relations among lunar impact melt rocks reveals no discernable trend virtually all lunar impact melt rocks sampled by the apollo missions as well as meteorites are characterized by 187 os 188 os and hse ir ratios that when collectively plotted define linear trends ranging from chondritic to fractionated compositions the impact melt rocks with hse signatures within the range of chondritic meteorites are interpreted to have been derived from impactors that had hse compositions similar to known chondrite groups by contrast the impact melt rocks with non chondritic relative hse concentrations could not have been made by mixing of known chondritic impactors these signatures may instead reflect contributions from early solar system bodies with bulk chemical compositions that have not yet been sampled by primitive meteorites present in our collections alternately they may reflect the preferential incorporation of evolved metal separated from a fractionated planetesimal core pre 4 0 ga ages for at least some impactor components with both chondritic and fractionated hse raise the possibility that the bulk of the hse were added to the lunar crust prior to the later stage basin forming impacts such as imbrium and serenitatis as proposed by fischer godde and becker 2012 for this scenario the later stage basin forming impacts were more important with respect to mixing prior impactor components into melt rocks rather than contributing much to the hse budgets of the rocks themselves

complex magmatic and impact history prior to 4 1 ga recorded in zircon from apollo 17 south massif aphanitic breccia 73235 abstract sample 73235 is one of several aphanitic impact melt breccias collected by the apollo 17 mission at stations 2 and 3 on the slopes of the south massif this study presents a detailed investigation of internal structures and u pb ages of large zircon grains from this breccia sample new data combined with the results of previous studies of zircon grains from the same location indicate that most zircon clasts in breccias from stations 2 and 3 formed during multiple magmatic events between 4 37 and 4 31 ga although the oldest zircon crystallized at about 4 42 ga and the youngest at 4 21 ga in addition zircons from the aphanitic breccias record several impact events prior to the 3 9 ga late heavy bombardment the results indicate that the zircons probably crystallized at different locations within the procellarum kreeep terrane and were later excavated and modified by several impacts and delivered to the same locality within separate ejecta blankets this locality became a source of material that formed the aphanitic impact melt breccias of the south massif during a 3 9 ga impact however the zircons showing old impact features are not modified by this 3 9 ga impact event suggesting that i this common source area was located at the periphery of excavation cavity and ii the 3 9 ga ages recorded by the zircon grains could date large basin forming events as significant as major later 3 9 ga collisions such as imbrium and serenitatis

inversion for range dependent water column sound speed profiles on the new jersey shelf using a linearized perturbative method the environment of the new jersey shelf is characterized by high spatial and temporal variability of water column properties caused by intrusions of warm salty water from the continental slope these intrusions cause fluctuations in the water column sound speed profile which can have significant effects on acoustic propagation in shallow water in this work a linearized perturbative inverse technique is applied to estimate range dependent water column sound speed profiles this method utilizes estimates of horizontal wave numbers to determine sound speed as a function of depth this technique is appropriate for the range dependent shallow water environment as horizontal wave numbers can be measured semilocally 1 2 km aperture and their values are a direct measurement of the local environmental parameters difficulty is encountered in application of the perturbative inverse technique because the wave number data are insensitive to some portions of the waveguide and as a result the solution can deviat

the comparative behavior of apatite zircon u pb systems in apollo 14 breccias implications for the thermal history of the fra mauro formation we report secondary ion mass spectrometry sims u pb analyses of zircon and apatite from four breccia samples from the apollo 14 landing site the zircon and apatite grains occur as cogenetic minerals in lithic clasts in two of the breccias and as unrelated mineral clasts in the matrices of the other two sims u pb analyses show that the ages of zircon grains range from 4023 24 ma to 4342 5 ma whereas all apatite grains define an isochron corresponding to an age of 3926 3 ma the disparity in the ages of cogenetic apatite and zircon demonstrates that the apatite u pb systems have been completely reset at 3926 3 ma whereas the u pb system of zircon has not been noticeably disturbed at this time the apatite u pb age is slightly older than the ages determined by other methods on apollo 14 materials highlighting need to reconcile decay constants used for the u pb ar ar and rb sr systems we interpret the apatite age as a time of formation of the fra mauro formation if the interpretation of this formation as an imbrium ejecta is correct apatite also determines the timing of imbrium impact the contrast in the pb loss behavior of apatite and zircon places constraints on the temperature history of the apollo 14 breccias and we estimate from the experimentally determined pb diffusion constants and an approximation of the original depth of the excavated samples in the fra mauro formation that the breccias experienced an initial temperature of about 1300 1100 c but cooled within the first five to ten years

dating phosphates of the strongly shocked suizhou chondrite impacts on undifferentiated asteroidal bodies provide invaluable information for understanding the solar system evolution nevertheless dating early and small scale impact events is technically challenging uranium lead u pb systematics of u bearing phases within shock induced melt veins smvs of chondrites may be significantly disturbed by localized heating thus providing opportunities to date these impact events as one of the major u hosts in chondrites apatite in the suizhou l6 chondrite has been compositionally and structurally modified to varying degrees by shock metamorphism apatite grains in the host remained largely intact during the impact and have recorded the initial thermal cooling time similar to 4550 ma on their parent body apatite grains in regions less than 100 mu m bordering the smvs or in relatively cold regions within the smvs were partly decomposed to tuite driven by the localized transient heating within the smvs their u pb systematics were disrupted to varying extents apatite in regions close to the center of the smvs has been completely transformed to tuite which yields an age of 4481 30 ma 2 sigma providing an upper limit to the impact event this study clearly demonstrates that by integrating in situ u pb isotope analysis with detailed microstructural and compositional analysis of phosphates it is possible to deduce the timing of early and small scale celestial impact events and hence create a more comprehensive understanding of the impact history of the solar system

uranium lead ages for lunar zircons evidence for a prolonged period of granophyre formation from 4 32 to 3 88 ga the ages of a number of small fragments of lunar granophyre have been determined by the in situ u th pb isotopic analysis of zircon using a sensitive high mass resolution ion microprobe shrimp i the zircon from lunar granophyre is characterized by consistently high u and th contents most 200 500 ppm and 100 300 ppm respectively compared to zircon from mafic lunar rocks some fragments of lunar granophyre are found to be as old as 4 32 ga supporting other evidence that the original lunar magma ocean crystallized completely within 200 ma of the formation of the moon itself other fragments are as young as 3 88 ga which is much later than the time of formation of most of the lunar crust the older lunar granophyres have rare earth element ree patterns that are similar to lunar kreep whilst the younger granophyres have bow shaped ree patterns that feature a greater relative enrichment in the heavy ree the wide range of ages of numerous lunar zircons lunar granophyres and other rocks indicates that zircon forming magmatism in the lunar highlands was most active prior to 4 3 ga but continuous until at least 3 88 ga the u pb isotopic composition of much lunar zircon is near concordant but the effects of isotopic disturbance as late as 1 0 ga are observed in some zircon both within granophyre fragments recrystallized by reheating and within fragments in which the original delicate silica k feldspar granophyric intergrowth is well preserved it is therefore essential to make multiple analyses of individual zircon grains and preferably analyses of suites of zircons from lunar igneous rocks if they are to be dated reliably by the u pb method it is possible that some of the younger lunar granophyres are the product of large scale silicate liquid immiscibility within late stage differentiates but this remains unproven until remnants of demonstrably cogenetic fe rich immiscible liquid are positively identified

resolution of impact related microstructures in lunar zircon a shock deformation mechanism map abstract the microstructures of lunar zircon grains from breccia samples 72215 73215 73235 and 76295 collected during the apollo 17 mission have been characterized via optical microscopy cathodoluminescence imaging and electron backscatter diffraction mapping these zircon grains preserve deformation microstructures that show a wide range in style and complexity planar deformation features pdfs are documented in lunar zircon for the first time and occur along 001 110 and 112 typically with 0 1 25 m spacing the widest pdfs associated with 112 contain microtwin lamellae with 65 misorientation relationships deformation bands parallel to 100 planes and irregular low angle misorientation axes this geometry is consistent with a dislocation glide system with 010 during dislocation creep nonplanar fractures recrystallized domains with sharp irregular interfaces and localized annealing textures along fractures are also observed no occurrences of reidite were detected shock deformation microstructures in zircon are explained in terms of elastic anisotropy of zircon pdfs form along a limited number of specific hkl planes that are perpendicular to directions of high young s modulus suggesting that pdfs are likely to be planes of longitudinal lattice damage twinned 112 pdfs also contain directions of high shear modulus a conceptual model is proposed for the development of different deformation microstructures during an impact event this shock deformation mechanism map is used to explain the relative timing conditions and complexity relationships between impact related deformation microstructures in zircon

rb sr analyses of apollo 16 melt rocks and a new age estimate for the imbrium basin lunar basin chronology and the early heavy bombardment of the moon rb sr model ages on 7 impact glass bombs and internal rb sr isochrons for two crystalline impact melt rocks from the apollo 16 collection have been determined the post cayley glass bombs with model ages between 4 75 0 45 ae and 3 97 0 08 ae can be classified according to their calculated single stage 87rb86sr i ratios 67728 67946 and 67627 8 point to a kreep free precursor terrain the descartes highlands whereas 63566 67567 67627 10 and 67629 are derived from the more heterogeneous cayley plains the very feldspar rich impact melt rock 65795 which is compositionally similar to the group of feldspathic microporphyritic melt breccias fm suite yields a crystallization age of 3 81 0 04 ae 2 87rb 1 42 11yr and isr of 69929 3 in the subophitic impact melt rock 60635 5 two ages were recorded one isochron with 3 87 0 02ae and isr of 0 69920 3 gives the crystallization age of a fine grained internal clast at 3 75 0 03 ae this fragment was incorporated into the host lithology of 60635 which is a member of the anorthositic noritic melt rock anmr group this group has a crystallization age of about 3 75 ae the anmr rocks and several samples of apollo 14 crystalline impact melt rocks belong to a suite of young crystalline impact melt rocks ranging in age from 3 71 to 3 81 ae these ages are in conflict with the canonical age of the imbrium event 3 85 ae it is argued that the young apollo 14 and 16 melt rocks cannot represent solid exotic fragments or melt splashes ejected from post imbrium local or distant craters instead these rocks are derived from coherent impact melt sheets of pre imbrian craters with diameters larger than 5 7 km they are interpreted as clasts of the fra mauro and cayley formation breccia deposits and therefore their ages are used as an upper limit for the age of the imbrium event we suggest that the imbrium basin and the related fra mauro and cayley formations were formed 3 77 0 02 ae ago and could be even as young as 3 75 ae as a consequence we adopt 3 92 0 03 ae 3 87 0 03 ae and 3 84 0 04 ae as ages for the nectaris serenitatis and crisium basins respectively in agreement with the relative crater densities measured on the ejecta blankets of these basins wilhelms 1984 the proposed age sequence leads to an average formation interval for the observed 12 13 nectarian basins of 7 to 14 m y leaving 30 pre nectarian basins of unknown age these facts suggest that there is no late terminal lunar cataclysm in the sense of a culmination of the lunar impact rate at 3 8 ae ago rather the observations are compatible with a steeply and steadily decreasing flux of impactors hartmann 1980 in the sense of an early heavy bombardment which started at the time of the moon s accretion and terminated around 3 75 ae ago

lead diffusion in apatite and zircon using ion implantation and rutherford backscattering techniques abstract ion implantation was used to introduce pb into the minerals zircon and apatite diffusion profiles were obtained using rutherford backscattering and the results were fitted with a model to determine the diffusion coefficients this approach is both simple and useful in studying diffusion over a temperature range of geologic interest without inordinate annealing times results for apatite over the temperature range 600 900 c are in good agreement with earlier results obtained for higher temperatures watson et al 1985 and are described by the following arrhenius law d 1 27 10 4 cm 2 s 1 exp 54 6 1 7 kcl mol 1 rt this suggests that radiation damage induced by ion implantation has little effect on pb diffusion in this case due to rapid annealing of induced damage at low temperatures the activation energy stated above is somewhat smaller than that previously determined 70 kcal mol 1 reflecting the larger range in 1 t sampled by the present results closure temperatures calculated with these diffusion parameters are in good agreement with those inferred from geochronologic data diffusion coefficients for pb in zircon determined in this study are greater than those obtained from a single experimental measurement and estimates of pb diffusion based on geochronologic data and u pb zoning in natural zircons the differing results for zircon and apatite obtained in this study appear to be related to each mineral s ability to anneal the radiation damage induced by ion implantation

shock metamorphosed zircon in terrestrial impact craters to ascertain the progressive stages of shock metamorphism of zircon samples from three well studied impact craters were analyzed by optical microscopy scanning electron microscopy sem and raman spectroscopy in thin section and grain separates these samples are comprised of well preserved rapidly quenched impactites from the ries crater germany strongly annealed impactites from the popigai crater siberia and altered variably quenched impactites from the chicxulub crater mexico the natural samples were compared with samples of experimentally shock metamorphosed zircon below 20 gpa zircon exhibits no distinct shock features above 20 gpa optically resolvable planar microstructures occur together with the high pressure polymorph reidite which was only retained in the ries samples decomposition of zircon to zro2 only occurs in shock stage iv melt fragments that were rapidly quenched this is not only a result of post shock temperatures in excess of 1700 c but could also be shock pressure induced which is indicated by possible relics of a high pressure polymorph of zro2 however zro2 was found to revert to zircon with a granular texture during devitrification of impact melts other granular textures represent recrystallized amorphous zrsio4 and reidite that reverted to zircon this requires annealing temperatures 1100 c a systematic study of zircons from a continuous impactite sequence of the chicxulub impact structure yields implications for the post shock temperature history of suevite like rocks until cooling below 600 c

identifying the geologic context of apollo 17 impact melt breccias abstract the origin of the boulders sampled during the apollo 17 mission to the taurus littrow valley has been debated since the completion of the mission four decades ago no consensus has yet been reached whether the sampled boulders originated in material emplaced as a result of the serenitatis impact i e massifs the imbrium impact i e sculptured hills a combination of both impact events or as a result of another pre or post serenitatis impact event i e massifs or superposed deposits on valley floor these on going debates demonstrate the importance of identifying the geologic context of samples collected during the apollo missions using high resolution imagery and topography data we identify boulder tracks that connect sampled boulders with source outcrops these observations verify astronauts impressions that boulders originated in outcrops within massif walls and that they remain uncontaminated by nearby sculptured hills materials this finding can be used with updated ar ar and u pb ages of analyzed samples to constrain the timing and intensity of the lunar cataclysm epoch

40ar 39ar age spectra of apollo 15 impact melt rocks by laser step heating and their bearing on the history of lunar basin formation we have obtained 26 high resolution 16 51 steps 40ar 39ar age spectra using a continuous laser system on submilligram fragments of recrystallized melt and single crystal plagioclase clasts from 12 apollo 15 impact melt rocks collected at the apennine front where the imbrium and serenitatis basins intersect these melt rocks represent a wide range of compositions and at least half a dozen different impacts six of the melt rocks have reproducible intermediate temperature plateaus over 40 or more of the 39ar released the plateaus are interpreted as crystallization impact ages and much of the non plateau behavior is attributable to recoil samples 15294 6 21 15304 7 69 15314 26 156 15357 15 and 15359 12 have mean 40ar 39ar plateau ages that are statistically indistinguishable and fall within the narrow range 3852 14 2 ma to 3870 12 ma with a weighted mean of 3865 5 ma sample 15356 9 has a mean plateau age of 3836 11 ma and may represent a distinctly younger impact a seventh sample 15314 30 158 has a peculiar but reproducible double plateau a low t one at 3873 9 ma which we think records the crystallization age and a high t one of 3831 10 ma which we interpret as an experimental 39ar recoil artifact four of the remaining melt rocks 15308 9 15414 2 37 15436 2 15445 253 have complex 40ar 39ar age spectra that indicate that they either formed in or were disturbed by impacts that occurred 3850 ma but did not completely reset the k ar isotopic system sample 15414 3 36 is different its spectrum may represent release mainly from clasts that were not well degassed in a melt event at 3870 ma the melt phase contains little potassium because most of the apennine front material must be coeval with or predate formation of the imbrium basin it seems likely that the imbrium impact is no older than 3870 ma and probably no older than 3836 ma so far there is no convincing evidence in the lunar record for melt producing impacts such as basin formation older than about 3 9 ga

experimental shock deformation in zircon a transmission electron microscopic study abstract in recent years apparently shock induced and thus impact characteristic microdeformations in the form of planar microdeformation features and so called strawberry granular texture have been observed in zircons in rocks from confirmed impact structures and from the k t boundary the nature of the planar microdeformations in this mineral is however still unknown and critical information is needed regarding the shock pressure range in which these deformation effects are produced we experimentally shock deformed two series of thin zircon zrsio 4 target plates cut perpendicular to the c axis at shock pressures of 20 40 and 60 gpa the recovered samples were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy in addition one sample series was studied by transmission electron microscopy tem microdeformation effects observed at 20 gpa include pervasive micro cleavage and dislocation patterns plastic deformation is indicated by a high density of straight dislocations in glide configuration the dominant glide systems are 010 micro cleavages induced by shear stresses during the compression stage occur mostly in the 100 planes the large density of dislocations at crack tips shows that plastic deformation was initiated by the micro cracking processs at 40 gpa the sample was partly transformed from the zircon z to a scheelite cawo 4 type s structure planar deformation features pdfs containing an amorphous phase of zircon composition are present in the not yet transformed zircon relics the phase with scheelite structure initiated in the 100 planes of zircon consists of thin 0 1 to several m bands that crosscut the zircon matrix the phase transformation is displacive martensitic and can be related by 100 z 112 s and 001 z s the scheelite structure phase is densely twinned with twins in the 112 plane the 60 gpa sample consists completely of the scheelite structure phase crosscutting and displacing relationships between twins and pdfs demonstrate that pdfs are formed in the zircon structure i e before the phase transformation to the scheelite structure occurred most likely at the shock front crystallographic orientations of optically visible planar features in zircon in comparison with orientations of planar defects at the tem scale suggest that the optically visible features are more likely planar microfractures than pdfs

infrared reflectance spectra 2 2 15 μm of plagioclase feldspars laboratory results show that 1 the christiansen frequency cf feature in mid infrared reflectance spectra of powders can be used to accurately distinguish plagioclase composition and 2 the wavelength position of the cf is not affected by vitrification of the plagioclase although the cf position does not distinguish glass from crystalline forms of plagioclase other features combination tone overtone restrahlen bands in the mid ir spectra of plagioclase can be used for that purpose these results have important implications for application of thermal emission spectroscopy to mapping the surface composition of regolith covered planetary bodies like the moon mars and asteroids

the effects of environmental variability and spatial sampling on the three dimensional inversion problem the overall goal of this work is to quantify the effects of environmental variability and spatial sampling on the accuracy and uncertainty of estimates of the three dimensional ocean sound speed field in this work ocean sound speed estimates are obtained with acoustic data measured by a sparse autonomous observing system using a perturbative inversion scheme rajan lynch and frisk j acoust soc am 82 998 1017 1987 the vertical and horizontal resolution of the solution depends on the bandwidth of acoustic data and on the quantity of sources and receivers respectively thus for a simple range independent ocean sound speed profile a single source receiver pair is sufficient to estimate the water column sound speed field on the other hand an environment with significant variability may not be fully characterized by a large number of sources and receivers resulting in uncertainty in the solution this work explores the interrelated effects of environmental variability and spatial sampling o

thermal history recorded by the apollo 17 impact melt breccia 73217 abstract lunar breccia 73217 is composed of plagioclase and pyroxene clasts originating from a single gabbronorite intrusion mixed with a silica rich glass interpreted to represent an impact melt a study of accessory minerals in a thin section from this breccia 73217 52 identified three different types of zircon and anhedral grains of apatite which represent distinct generations of accessory phases and provide a unique opportunity to investigate the thermal history of the sample equant anhedral zircon grains that probably formed in the gabbronorite referred to as type 1 have consistent u pb ages of 4332 7 ma a similar age of 4335 5 ma was obtained from acicular zircon type 2 grains interpreted to have formed from impact melt a polycrystalline zircon aggregate type 3 occurs as a rim around a baddeleyite grain and has a much younger age of 3929 10 ma similar to the 3936 17 ma age of apatite grains found in the thin section a combined apatite type 3 zircon age of 3934 12 ma is proposed as the age of the serenitatis impact event and associated thermal pulse x ray mapping and electron probe analyses showed that ti is inhomogeneous in the zircon grains on the sub micrometer scale however model temperatures estimated from shrimp analyses of ti concentration in the 10 m diameter spots on the polished surfaces of type 1 and type 2 zircons range between about 1300 and 900 c respectively whereas ti concentrations determined for the type 3 zircon are higher at about 1400 1500 c a combination of u pb ages ti concentration data and detailed imaging and petrographic studies of the zircon grains shows that the gabbronorite parent of the zircon clasts formed shortly before the 4335 5 ma impact which mixed the clasts and the felsic melt and projected the sample closer to the surface where fast cooling resulted in the crystallization of acicular zircon type 2 the 3934 12 ma serenitatis event resulted in partial remelting of the glass and formation of polycrystalline zircon type 3 this event also reset the u pb system of apatite formed merrillite coronas around some apatite grains and probably re equilibrated some pyroxenes in the clasts although there have been arguments for pre 3 9 ga impacts based on other types of samples the age of the acicular zircon at 4335 5 ma provides the first evidence of impact melt significantly predating the lunar cataclysm our data combined with other chronological results demonstrate the occurrence of pre 3 9 ga impacts on the moon and suggest that the lunar impact history consisted of a series of intense bombardment episodes interspersed with relatively calm periods of low impact flux

estimates of the temporal and spatial variability of ocean sound speed on the new jersey shelf estimates of the spatial and temporal variability of ocean sound speed on the new jersey shelf were obtained using acoustic signals measured by a set of freely drifting buoys the range and time dependent inversion problem is computationally intensive and a linearized perturbative algorithm was applied to obtain results in an efficient manner the inversion algorithm uses estimates of modal travel time to determine sound speed as a function of range and depth in order to handle the high volume of data associated with the acoustic sensing network the modal travel time estimation process was automated using an adaptive time frequency signal processing method known as time warping time warping is a model based transform that converts the frequency dependent modal arrivals to monotones in the warped domain where they can be easily filtered the data analyzed in this paper were collected on 16 march 2011 on the new jersey shelf when the ocean was relatively well mixed while the observed sound speed variations are small both spatial and temporal trends are observed in the results furthermore the estimated sound speed profiles show good agreement with temporally and spatially collocated measurements