Habit and texture studies of lunar and meteoritic materials with a 1 MeV electron microscope

https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-821X(70)90003-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Some habit and texture features of the finest and uncrushed grains in the lunar dust samples 10084 and 12070, were studied with the 1 MeV electron microscope of the Institut d'Optique Electronique du C.N.R.S., Toulouse, France. These features were then compared with those observed in broken fragments extracted either from lunar rocks 10047 and 12063 or from different types of meteorites (Orgueil; Pesyanoe, Shergotty). The finest fraction of the Apollo 11 lunar soil samples is constituted of about 80% of well ordered but rounded crystals which are frequently overlaid by a thin skin of amorphous material. In the Apollo 12 soil the grains are coarser, the fraction of crystalline material is higher (∼90%) and the proportion of crystals showing an amorphous skin is smaller, but both lunar soil samples are very different from meteoritic or lunar rock matter. Some implications of the present results concerning the fabric of the finest fraction of the lunar regolith, the ancient solar wind and meteoritic research are briefly outlined.

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