Prior to the Apollo 16 mission, the materials of the Cayley Plains and the Descartes Mountains were thought to be mostly of volcanic origin. Rock and soil samples from these regions strongly suggest, however, that they may be products of multiring basin forming impacts, although minor local volcanism is not precluded. The smooth planar surfaces may have been formed initially by Imbrium ejecta which flowed into topographic lows at the distal margins of the lineated Fra Mauro ejecta. It is emphasized, however, that the rocks and soils returned from the Apollo 16 site cannot necessarily be considered representative of the lunar crust in the Descartes region from which they were collected.


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    Title :

    Geologic setting of Apollo 16


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Lunar Science Conference ; 1973 ; Houston, TX


    Publication date :

    1973-01-01


    Type of media :

    Miscellaneous


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English


    Keywords :


    Geologic setting of the Apollo 14 samples

    Hait, M. H. / Sutton, R. L. / Swann, G. A. et al. | NTRS | 1971