Mineralogy and composition of lunar fines and selected rocks.

ABSTRACT

Mineralogical descriptions and both wet chemical analyses and microprobe analyses are given of the glasses and crystalline components of the lunar fines and of the minerals in microgabbros (samples 10050 and 10047). The principal minerals described are various clinopyroxenes, plagioclase, olivine, low cristobalite, low tridymite, ilmenite, iron-nickel, iron, schreibersite, cohenite, troilite, and a new CaFe pyroxenoid. Descriptions are given of small craters produced by hypervelocity particle impact on glass and iron-nickel fragments in the fines. The rounding of grains in the fines and of surface rocks is attributed to mechanical ahrasion and not to cratering.