Petrology of the 2–4 mm soil fraction from the Hadley-Apennine region of the moon

A total of 139 breccia and crystalline rock fragments in the size range 2–4 mm from four Apollo 15 soil samples have been examined. Two of the sample stations are on the mare surface (4 and 9A) and two are on the Apennine Front (2 and 6). Approximately 90% of the fragments from the Apennine Front are brown-glass “soil” breccias, but those from the mare surface are 60%–70% basalt. Several textural varieties of mare basalt have been recognized, but within experimental error there is no difference in their 40Ar- 39Ar ages. The major non-mare (Pre-Imbrian) crystalline rock types in the Apennine Front regolith are KREEP basalt, anorthositic rocks, recrystallized norite (including anorthositic norite) and recrystallized polymict breccias; however, such crystalline rocks are rare in the samples examined. Apparently, the near surface Imbrium ejecta below the regolith has not been thermally recrystallized, and probably there are no outcrops of crystalline rocks upslope from the sample stations.