The rate of dielectric breakdown weathering of lunar regolith in permanently shadowed regions

•We estimate the rate of dielectric breakdown in permanently shadowed lunar regolith.•About 10–25% of gardened regolith in permanent shadow may have been affected.•Breakdown weathering there could thus be comparable to meteoritic weathering.•Breakdown weathering may help explain observations of permanently shadowed regolith.•It is conceivable that breakdown-weathered material is present in Apollo samples. [Display omitted] Large solar energetic particle events may cause dielectric breakdown in the upper 1 mm of regolith in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). We estimate how the resulting breakdown weathering compares to meteoroid impact weathering. Although the SEP event rates measured by the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) are too low for breakdown to have significantly affected the regolith over the duration of the LRO mission, regolith gardened by meteoroid impacts has been exposed to SEPs for ∼106 yr. Therefore, we estimate that breakdown weathering’s production rate of vapor and melt in the coldest PSRs is up to 1.8−3.5×10−7 kg m−2 yr−1, which is comparable to that produced by meteoroid impacts. Thus, in PSRs, up to 10–25% of the regolith may have been melted or vaporized by dielectric breakdown. Breakdown weathering could also be consistent with observations of the increased porosity (“fairy castles”) of PSR regolith. We also show that it is conceivable that breakdown-weathered material is present in Apollo soil samples. Consequently, breakdown weathering could be an important process within PSRs, and it warrants further investigation.