¹Xiaohui Fu,¹Chengxiang Yin,²Bradley L.Jolliff,¹Jiang Zhang,¹Jian Chen,¹Zongcheng Ling,¹Feng Zhang,³Yang Liu,³Yongliao Zou
Icarus (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115254]
¹Shandong Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy and Solar-Terrestrial Environment, School of Space Science and Physics, Institute of Space Sciences, Shandong University, Weihai, Shandong, China
²Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and The McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
³State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Copyright Elsevier

Chang’E-5 (CE-5) mission returned 1731 g of lunar soil from northeastern Oceanus Procellarum. This study begins by comparing the mineralogy and geochemistry of CE-5 soil with Apollo and Luna soils. CE-5 soil shares similar mineral components with Apollo mare soils. Geochemically, CE-5 soil is characterized by high-FeO, intermediate-TiO2, and elevated incompatible elements. The new returned CE-5 soil represents a unique type of mare soil that expands the diversity of returned lunar samples. Its bulk chemical compositions suggest that CE-5 soil consists of pulverized local mare basalt. Nonmare materials are thought to be negligible while meteoroid contamination is <1%. CE-5 soil provides an additional iron-rich basaltic end-member composition and extends the chemical ranges of the existing calibration soils for lunar remote sensing. CE-5 soil, together with the landing site, can serve as new ground truth both in mineralogy and geochemistry. Based on bulk chemical data of CE-5 soils and pyroxene compositions of CE-5 mare basalt clasts, we infer that CE-5 mare basalt has a fractional crystallization history similar to the Apollo high-Ti basalts. These CE-5 mare basalt clasts analyzed in recent studies, possibly derive from a single lava flow that experienced strong fractional crystallization.