RED/ORANGE VOLCANIC ASH DEPOSITS ON THE LUNAR SURFACE DOCUMENTED IN COLOR-BALANCED APOLLO 17 HASSELBLAD SURFACE AND ORBITAL PHOTOGRAPHS COMPARED WITH APOLLO PANORAMIC, METRIC MAPPING, AND LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER PHOTOS

At GSA 2018, contrast- and color-balanced photographs were presented of a trench dug across an orange tinted, oval area on the rim of Shorty Crater by Harrison H. Schmitt during the exploration of the valley of Taurus-Littrow. They documented one of the most remarkable discoveries of the Apollo program. Trench and core samples consisted of very small orange, red, yellow and black volcanic glass spherules and shards (ash), rich in titanium and low in silica. This ash erupted in fire fountains as volatile-driven pyroclastics derived from a depth of ~500 km between about 3.65 and 3.48 Ga. Prints or later digital scans of the prime color film depicted the trenched material as having a dull, muddy brown color, not the bright red, orange and yellow colors described by Schmitt in situ. Subsequently, software techniques were used to balance the colors of the original scans to match Schmitt’s descriptions. The results showed the startling colors that originally captured Schmitt’s attention. Apollo 15 photographs documenting green ejecta from Spur Crater were also color-balanced. Samples were made up of green glass spherules similar in physical characteristics to the Apollo 17 orange ash. These photos have also never been printed showing the distribution of green patterns.

For GSA 2019, color-balanced Apollo 17 Hasselblad orbital photos compared with other orbital satellite images are presented showing distributions of orange-red-black ash deposits around numerous craters in southwestern Mare Serenitatis, extending the range of these deep-seated volcanic products between the Apollos 15 and 17 landing sites. The characteristics of these highly colored glass beads provide an improved understanding of the geochemical and geophysical nature of the Moon’s interior. The volatiles accompanying the deep-seated eruptions, including water, suggest a much wider distribution for them within the Moon than heretofore assumed. They also represent a potential source of the water-ice known to be present at the lunar poles. These points suggest that the origin of the Moon itself may not have formed in a single gigantic cataclysmic impact with the Earth, but rather evolved independently and more slowly over the course of time.