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Published May 1970 | public
Journal Article

Rb-Sr ages from the ocean of storms

Abstract

Rb-Sr internal isochrons for two texturally and mineralogically distinct crystalline rocks returned by Apollo 12 yield similar ages of 3.36 ± 0.10 and 3.26 ± 0.10 × 10⁹ years. The initial Sr compositions determined are relatively primitive but distinct so that these samples represent two different rock bodies. These ages are slightly but distinctly younger than the Mare Tranquillitatis Rb Sr ages and indicate that the flooding of the maria may have occurred only during a short interval of∼ 300 × 10⁶ years duration 3.6 × 10⁹ years ago. The soil at the Ocean of Storms yields a well determined model age of 4.44 × 10⁹ years and therefore the special nature and older age of the lunar soil determined at the Apollo 11 site is found to be a widespread phenomenon. Initial Sr compositions from Apollo 12 support our previous conclusion based on Apollo 11 measurements that the moon as a whole has a Rb/Sr ratio much lower than that in chondrites.

Additional Information

© 1970 Published by Elsevier B.V. Received 27 April 1970. We thank A. Chodos for microprobe analyses on samples used in this study. We benefited from frequent discussions with A.L. Albee and D.S. Burnett and from their comments on the manuscript. We are indebted to P. Young, U. Derksen, T. Wen and J. Brown, our fellow inmates of the Lunatic Asylum, for their skillful support. This work was carried out under a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAS 9-8074).

Additional details

Created:
August 21, 2023
Modified:
October 24, 2023