Carbon and carbon-14 in lunar soil 14163

Conference · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:6353535

Fireman, E L; Stoenner, R W

Carbon is removed from the surface of lunar soil 14163 size fractions by combustions at 500 and 1000/sup 0/C in an oxygen stream and the carbon contents and the carbon-14 activities are measured. The carbon contents are inversely correlated with grain size. A measured carbon content of 198 ppM for bulk 14163, obtained by combining the size fraction results, is modified to 109 +- 12 ppM by a carbon contamination correction. This value is in accord with a previous determination, 110 ppM, for bulk 14163. The small (< 53 ..mu..) grains of 14163 had more combusted carbon-14 activity, 31.2 +- 2.5 dpm /kg, than the large (> 53 ..mu..) grains, 11.2 +- 2.0 dpm/kg. The combusted carbon and carbon-14 are attributed mainly to solar-wind implantation. Melt extractions of carbon-14 from the combusted soil samples gave essentially identical activities, 21.0 +- 1.5 and 19.2 +- 2.0 dpm/kg for the small and large grains, and are attributed to cosmic-ray spallation-produced carbon-14.

• Research Organization: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA (USA); Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 6353535
• Report Number(s): BNL-29527; CONF-810378-1; TRN: 81-010793
• Resource Relation: Conference: 12. lunar and planetary science conference, Houston, TX, USA, 16 Mar 1981
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
LUNAR MATERIALS
CARBON 14
ISOTOPE RATIO
MEASURING METHODS
RADIOACTIVITY
SOLAR WIND
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CARBON ISOTOPES
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MATERIALS
NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
SOLAR ACTIVITY
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
640107* - Astrophysics &amp; Cosmology- Planetary Phenomena