Delineating the major KREEP-bearing terranes on the moon with global measurements of absolute thorium abundances

Conference · Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1999

OSTI ID:329552

Lawrence, D J; Feldman, W C; Barraclough, B L; Elphic, R C; Prettyman, T H ^[1]; Binder, A B ^[2]; Maurice, S ^[3]; Miller, M C ^[4]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
2. Lunar Research Inst., Gilroy, CA (United States)
3. Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, Toulouse (France)
4. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

The Lunar Prospector (LP) Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) has been used to map the global composition of thorium on the lunar surface. Previous LP results of relative thorium abundances demonstrated that thorium is highly concentrated in and around the nearside western maria and less so in the South Pole Aitken (SPA) basin. Using new detector modeling results and a larger data set, the authors present here a global map of absolute thorium abundances on a 2{degree} by 2{degree} equal-area pixel scale. Because thorium is a tracer of KREEP-rich material, these data provide fundamental information regarding the locations and importance of terranes that are rich in KREEP bearing materials.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 329552
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-99-328; CONF-990303-; ON: DE99002047; TRN: AHC29912%%70
• Resource Relation: Conference: Lunar and planetary science conference, Houston, TX (United States), 15-19 Mar 1999; Other Information: PBD: [1999]
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
GAMMA SPECTROMETERS
MOON
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
THORIUM
ABUNDANCE
MAPPING