Porosities of lunar meteorites: Strength, porosity, and petrologic screening during the meteorite delivery process

Abstract

Porosity has been directly measured for eight lunar meteorite breccias and calculated for two more on the basis of literature density measurements. Lunar meteorite regolith breccias display systematically low porosity in comparison to otherwise analogous Apollo regolith breccias. Among seven meteoritic regolith breccias, porosity ranges from 1 to 11% and averages 7.5 ± (1-σ) 3.2%, whereas for 44 analogous Apollo samples (porosities mostly calculated from literature density data) the average is 25 ± (1-σ) 7%. The origin of this disparity is enigmatic, but the trend probably reflects mainly a bias in favor of strong, compact breccias among fragments that manage to survive the violent process of launch to lunar escape velocity (2.38 km/s). In addition, compaction during launch may play an important role. The population of lunar meteorites is clearly not a random, unmodified sample of lithic materials near the surface of the parent body. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union.