Space weathering and compositional stratigraphy of Apollo 17 double drive tube 73001/2
Corresponding Author
Lingzhi Sun
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Correspondence
Lingzhi Sun, Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorPaul G. Lucey
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAbigail Flom
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Search for more papers by this authorJames A. McFadden
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Search for more papers by this authorRyan A. Zeigler
Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Search for more papers by this authorJuliane Gross
Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Rutgers State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMichelle S. Thompson
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Search for more papers by this authorFrancis M. McCubbin
Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCharles K. Shearer
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Search for more papers by this authorThe ANGSA Science Team
ANGSA Science Team list at https://www.lpi.usra.edu/ANGSA/teams/.
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Lingzhi Sun
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Correspondence
Lingzhi Sun, Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorPaul G. Lucey
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAbigail Flom
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Search for more papers by this authorJames A. McFadden
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Search for more papers by this authorRyan A. Zeigler
Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Search for more papers by this authorJuliane Gross
Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Rutgers State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMichelle S. Thompson
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Search for more papers by this authorFrancis M. McCubbin
Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCharles K. Shearer
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Search for more papers by this authorThe ANGSA Science Team
ANGSA Science Team list at https://www.lpi.usra.edu/ANGSA/teams/.
Search for more papers by this authorEditorial Handling—Marc W. Caffee
Abstract
The double drive tube 73001/2 is a regolith core and was collected on the Light Mantle at Station 3 during the Apollo 17 mission. This core preserves an in situ record of space weathering and compositional stratigraphy, providing insights to the thickness of the Light Mantle and the local regolith reworking time scale. We measured the dissection passes 2–3 of core 73002 and passes 1–3 of core 73001 using a high-spatial resolution multispectral imaging system, and analyzed the space weathering products on individual soil grains from pass 2 of 73002 using transmission electron microscopy analysis. Our results indicate that the double drive tube 73001/2 contains a zone of submature to mature soil overlying a zone of immature soil. The top more mature zone is about 6–7 cm thick, corresponding to the local regolith reworking depth. On the basis of this depth, the estimated regolith reworking time scale for core 73001/2 is approximately 9–13 million years. Due to mixing with basaltic materials from the central valley, the top mature zone exhibits an FeO content 1–3 wt% higher than the underlying immature soils. Spectral images indicate that the double drive tube failed to penetrate the bottom of the Light Mantle but may have reached the edge of the landslide-valley material mixing zone. The local landslide deposit is thicker than the maximum sampling depth of the double drive tube, which is about 70 cm.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13316993.
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