Multielement Analysis of Lunar Soil and Rocks

Abstract

Results for multielement analysis of lunar soil and of seven rocks returned by Apollo 11 are presented. Sixty-six elements were determined with spark source mass spectrography and neutron activation. U. S. Geological Survey standard W-1 was used as a comparative stanadard. Results indicate an apparent uniformity of composition among the samples. Comparison with solar, meteoritic, and terrestrial abundances reveals depletiozt of volatile elements and enrichment of the rare earths titaniunm, zirconium, yttriuntm, and hafnium. Althouglh there is an overall similarity of the lunar material to basaltic achondrites amid basalts, the differences suggest detailed geochemical processes to the history of this material.

Isotopic and elemental abundances of copper and zinc in lunar samples, Zagami, Pele’s hairs, and a terrestrial basalt

“…A search for larger fractionation effects on the micron scale should continue. (1) This work, (2) Anders et al (1971), (3) Annell and Helz (1970), (4) Compston et al (1970), (5) Ganapathy et al (1970), Gast and Hubbard (1970), (7) Maxwell et al (1970), (8) Morrison et al (1970), (9) Wänke et al (1970), (10) Wiik and Ojanpera (1970), (11) Goles et al (1970), (12) Haskin et al (1970), (13) Neal (2001), (14) Baedecker et al (1974), (15) Boynton et al (1975), (16) Brunfelt et al (1974), (17) Rose et al (1975), (18) Wänke et al (1975), (19) Allen et al (1977), and (20) Apollo 17 Preliminary Examination Team (1973).…”

Allende Meteorite Reference Sample

“…Wong Multielement analyses were performed for 45 elements on two splits of the Allende meteorite reference sample employing neutron activation analysis (NAA) (Morrison et al, 1969) and spark source mass spectrometry (SSMS) (Morrison and Kashuba, 1969). These techniques were applied earlier in the analyses of USGS rock standards (Morrison et al, 1969;Morrison and Kashuba, 1969) and lunar samples, meteorites, and tholeiites (Morrison et al, 1970a(Morrison et al, , 1970bMorrison et al, 1971).…”

Improvement in the analysis of ashes from coal by spark source mass spectrography

“…The analytical results obtained using this method of selection of the internal standard can be just as accurate as those results obtained by use of the doping method (190). Most of the analyses of these materials using the undoped method have used corrections for sensitivity based on the analysis of standard samples (192,199,202,203). Other analyses of such materials have been performed (18,31,211,212).…”

“…However, these empirical values can be in error by as much as 40-50% (196). Another method of determining the relative elemental sensitivities is by the analysis of standard samples (36,171,172,174,175,177,185,190,192,195,196,(198)(199)(200)(201)(202)(203)(204). The sensitivities are determined by comparison of the experimental values with the "true" values determined by independent methods.…”