Lunar sample 70181,88.
This is 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.
Magnification key 20x = 8 mm image width 40x = 4 mm image width 100x = 1.6 mm image width 200x = 0.8 mm image width 400x = 0.4 mm image width 500x = 0.32 mm image width |
100X, plane polarized light
Most of this soil is derived from high-Ti mare basalts, and include light purplish-brown pyroxenes, colorless plagioclase, basalt rock fragments, 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, is an agglutinate grain.
100X, cross polarized light
Here, the agglutinates and glass are black. Visible are discrete pyroxene and plagioclase grains and basalt rock fragments.
100X, plane polarized light
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.
100X, cross polarized light
Same view as above. Note the low and patchy birefringence of the center plagioclase grain.