Featureless spectra on the Moon as evidence of residual lunar primordial crust

Abstract

AbstractWe report the global distribution of areas exhibiting no absorption features (featureless or FL) on the lunar surface, based on the reflectance spectral data set obtained by the Spectral Profiler onboard Kaguya/SELENE. We found that FL sites are located in impact basins and large impact craters in the Feldspathic Highlands Terrane, while there are no FL sites in the Procellarum regions nor the South Pole‐Aitken basin. FL sites in each impact basin/crater are mainly found at the peak rings or rims, where the purest anorthosite (PAN) sites are also found. At the local scale, most of the FL and PAN points are associated with impact craters and peaks. Most of the FL spectra show a steeper (redder) continuum than the PAN spectra, suggesting the occurrence of space weathering effects. We propose that most of the material exhibiting a FL spectrum originate from space weathered PAN. Taking into account all the occurrence trends of FL sites on the Moon, we propose that both the FL and PAN materials were excavated from the primordial lunar crust during ancient basin formations below the megaregolith in the highlands. Since the FL and PAN sites are widely distributed over the lunar surface, our new data may support the existence of a massive PAN layer below the lunar surface.