[meteorite-list] Free Nickel-Iron In Lunar Breccias, The Moon

From: Mark Fox <unclefireballmtf_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:48:13 2004
Message-ID: <20011025011403.97705.qmail_at_web14911.mail.yahoo.com>

October 24, 2001
         
Greetings Meteorite Enthusiasts!
          
Nobody around I hear? Allow me to fix that!
          
It is taught (as far as I know) that lunar meteorites
are absent of free iron-nickel metal.
          
Nevertheless, it is not overly unusual for some
meteorites to contain foreign fragments of unrelated,
meteoritic material, cemented together with the
meteorite. Such foreign clasts are viewed as a result
of an impact event with the space rock's parent body.
With this in mind, and the long impact history of our
scarred moon, wouldn't it be possible for some
malleable, nickel-iron metal to be observed in lunar
breccias from the impact of an iron or nickel-iron
rich meteorite? Aside from what I believe were two
meteorites recovered from the moon, has such an
nickel-iron occurrence ever been recorded in any of
the moon rocks recovered during the Apollo or Luna
missions?

If not, then what became of the large bulk of the
malleable, nickel-iron that almost certainly arrived
to the moon, even after it ceased its surface volcanic
activities? Assuming that no significant amount of
free nickel-iron has been detected lying on the moon
in the form of meteorites, could this be an indication
in support of the moon having an atmosphere at one
time which reacted with the exposed, meteoritic metal?
  
Just casual speculation!
          
My e-mail is unclefireballmtf_at_yahoo.com.
          
Long strewn fields!
          
Mark Fox
Newaygo, MI USA

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Received on Wed 24 Oct 2001 09:14:03 PM PDT