Opaque Minerals of the Lunar Rocks and Dust from Mare Tranquillitatis
- 30 January 1970
- journal article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 167 (3918) , 615-618
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.167.3918.615
Abstract
The opaque minerals in the lunar rocks 10047, 10050, 10057, 10059, 10068 and in the dust were studied. Rock 10047 contains ilmenite as a main component besides Al-bearing chromian ulvöspinel, a new Ti, Fe, Zr, Y, Ca silicate, troilite, cobaltian α Fe, minor hafnian baddeleyite and dysanalyte. Dysanalyte contains Ca, Ti, and Fe as major elements and shows concentrations (rare earth elements together ≈ 10 percent) of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Hf, Y, and Zr plus traces of Nb, Ba, and Na. The chemistry of ilmenite in the igneous rocks shows no appreciable variations. A new mineral of the solid solution series MgTi2O5-FeTi2O5 has also been encountered in the polymict breccias. The microbreccias and the fines contain meteorite debris indicating an impact origin.Keywords
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