Compositional variation in Apollo 16 impact-melt breccias and inferences for the geology and bombardment history of the Central Highlands of the Moon

Abstract High-precision data for the concentrations of a number of lithophile and siderophile elements were obtained on multiple subsamples from 109 impact-melt rocks and breccias (mostly crystalline) from the Apollo 16 site. Compositions of nearly all Apollo 16 melt rocks fall on one of two trends of increasing Sm concentration with increasing Sc concentration. The Eastern trend (lower Sm Sc , Mg Fe , and Sm Yb ratios) consists of compositional groups 3 and 4 of previous classification schemes. These melt rocks are feldspathic, poor in incompatible and siderophile elements, and appear to have provenance in the Descartes formation to the east of the site. The Western trend (higher Sm Sc , Mg Fe , and Sm Yb ratios) consists of compositional groups 1 and 2. These relatively mafic, KREEP-bearing breccias are a major component (~35%) of the Cayley plains west of the site and are unusual, compared to otherwise similar melt breccias from other sites, in having high concentrations of Fe-Ni metal (1–2%). The metal is the carrier of the low-Ir/Au (~0.3 × chondritic) siderophile-element signature that is characteristic of the Apollo 16 site. Four compositionally distinct groups (1M, 1F, 2DB, and 2NR) of Western-trend melt breccias occur that are each represented by at least six samples. Compositional group 1 of previous classification schemes (the “poikilitic” or “LKFM” melt breccias) can be subdivided into two groups. Group 1M (represented by six samples, including 60315) is characterized by lower Al2O3 concentrations, higher MgO and alkali concentrations, and higher Mg Fe and Cr Sc ratios than group 1F (represented by fifteen samples, including 65015). Group 1M also has siderophile-element concentrations averaging about twice those of group 1F and Ir Au and Ir Ni ratios that are even lower than those of other Western-trend melt rocks ( Ir Au = 0.24 ± 0.03 , CI-normalized). At the mafic extreme of group 2 (“VHA” melt breccias), the melt lithology occurring as clasts in feldspathic fragmental breccias from North Ray crater (group 2NR) is compositionally distinct from the melt lithology of dimict breccias from the Cayley plains (group 2DB) in having higher concentrations of Sc, Cr, and heavy rare earth elements and lower concentrations of siderophile elements. The distinct siderophile-element signature (high absolute abundances, low Ir Au ratio) suggest that the four groups of mafic melt breccia are all somehow related. Ratios of some lithophile elements also suggest that they are more closely related to each other than they are to melt breccias from other Apollo sites. However, none of the breccia compositions can be related to any of the others by any simple process of igneous fractionation or mixing involving common lunar materials. Thus, the origin of the four groups of mafic melt breccia is enigmatic. If they were produced in only one or two impacts, then a mechanism exists for generating regimes of impact-melt breccia in a single impact that are substantially different from each other in composition. For various reasons, including the problem of delivering large volumes of four different types of melt to the Apollo 16 site, it is unlikely that any of these breccias were produced in basin-forming impacts. If they were produced in as many as four crater-forming impacts, then the unusual siderophile-element signature is difficult to explain. Possible explanations are 1. (1) the four groups of melt breccia all contain metal from a single, earlier impact, 2. (2) they were each formed by related metal-rich meteoroids, or 3. (3) some common postimpact process has resulted in metal of similar composition in each of four melt pools. Within a compositional group, most intrasample and intersample variation in lithophile element concentrations is caused by differences among samples in the proportion of a component of normative anorthosite or noritic anorthosite. In most cases, this compositional variation probably reflects variation in clast abundance. For group 2DB (and probably 2NR), differences in abundance of a component of ferroan anorthosite (estimated Al2O3 ≈ 32%) accounts for the compositional variation. For groups 1M and 1F, the anorthositic component is more mafic (estimated Al2O3 ≈ 26%). Some group-2 samples may be related by a troctolitic component of varying abundance.