Kickapoo Lunar Research Team^a, Georgiana Kramer^b,c,*

^aAbby Delawder, Austen Beason, Victoria Wilson, and Richard D. Snyder, Kickapoo High School, 3710 S. Jefferson Avenue, Springfield, MO 65807, USA
^bCenter for Lunar Science and Exploration, Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058, USA
^cNASA Lunar Science Institute, USA

High resolution images of stratified ejecta boulders on the lunar nearside reveal layers of alternating low and high albedo material. We measured the thickness and albedo of each alternating light and dark layer from twenty nine stratified boulders located in Aristarchus Crater and Mare Undarum. The results were used to test hypotheses to explain the origins of the observed strata in these impact ejected boulders. Morphologically, these boulders demonstrate cross-bedding, trough-shaped layering, tapered layering and cumulate enclaves. We interpret these characteristics to be evidence that these layers result from periodic disruption by convection or density currents within a cooling layered igneous intrusion. We demonstrate that the layering observed in these boulders cannot be the result of known processes occurring on the surface, but instead suggests a history of complex intrusive igneous processes within the lunar crust.

Reference
Kickapoo Lunar Research Team and Georgiana Kramer G (in press) Stratified Ejecta Boulders as Indicators of Layered Plutons on the Moon. Icarus
[doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2013.10.003]
Copyright Elsevier

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