Dataset of replicate Apollo sample magnetizations bearing on impacts and absence of a long-lived lunar dynamo

Abstract

The absence or presence of a lunar paleomagnetosphere is important because it bears directly on the volatile content of the regolith and exploration targets for Artemis and other missions to the Moon. Recent paleointensity study of samples from the Apollo missions has readdressed this question. Multiple specimens from a young 2-million-year-old glass shows a strong magnetization compatible with that induced by charge-separation in an impact plasma, whereas paleointensities of single crystals yield evidence for null magnetizations spanning 3.9 to 3.2 Ga. Together, these data are consistent with an impact mechanism for the magnetization of some lunar samples, and absence of a long-lived lunar core dynamo and paleomagnetosphere recorded in other samples. Here, we present a dataset that allows researchers to examine replicates of these measurements. For the glass, we present data from specimens that fail standard paleointensity selection criteria but nevertheless imply a complex, changing magnetic field environment. For the single crystals, the replicate measurements further illustrate the initial zero magnetization state of these materials.