Surface exposure indices of lunar soils: a comparative FMR study.

Abstract

The intensity of the characteristic FMR resonance of a lunar soil normalized to its total iron content (Is/FeO) was tested for use as its index of relative surface exposure age. The characteristic resonance is due to fine-grained metal that is the result of micrometeorite impact at the lunar surface. In this study, Is/FeO was measured for the below 250 micron size fraction of 152 soils and for the 90-150 micron size fraction of 88 soils. With this large suite of samples it was possible to correlate Is/FeO with a variety of other indices of relative surface exposure age (N, C, trapped He-4, trapped Ar-36, petrographic and magnetic agglutinates, and mean grain size) and thus not only affirm that Is/FeO is an index of relative surface exposure age but also consider the relative merits of the various surface exposure indices.