Lunar thin section 70181
This lunar soil is from the Taurus-Littrow Valley area, in a range of mountains between Mare Serenetatis and Mare Tranquillitatis, by the Apollo 17 mission. The samples are mostly from the Serenitatis ejecta blanket and mare basalt fill.
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Most of this soil is derived from high-Ti mare basalts, and include fragments of light purplish-brown pyroxene, colorless plagioclase, basalts, orange glass spheres (fire fountain droplets), and Fe-Ti oxides (black grain just below and to the right of center). Many of the dark fragments are devitrified impact glass and agglutinates. The dark grain in the upper left, with a colorless bubble inside, is an agglutinate. Here, the agglutinates and glass are black. In cross-polarized light the discrete pyroxene and plagioclase grains can easily be distinguished. Field width is 1.6 mm.
Views in plane- and cross-polarized light.
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Another view at the same magnification, showing discrete pyroxene grains, one nearly colorless, high birefringence olivine grain (center of the lower right quadrant), basalt rock fragments, Fe-Ti oxides, and agglutinate grains. In the center is a plagioclase grain with most of its birefringence gone due to shock-induced disorder of its crystal lattice. Just above and to the right of center is a fine-grained basalt rock fragment with an embayed plagioclase crystal. In cross-polarized light you can see the low and patchy birefringence of the center plagioclase grain. Field width is 1.6 mm.
Views in plane- and cross-polarized light.
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