Long-term changes in solar wind elemental and isotopic ratios: A comparison of two lunar ilmenites of different antiquities

Abstract

An ilmenite separate from lunar regolith breccia 79035, a sample presumed to have been exposed to solar wind more than 2 Ga ago, was analyzed for noble gas and nitrogen elemental and isotopic abundances by stepwise oxidation and pyrolysis. The gases appear to be distributed between two distinct reservoirs in the ilmenite, defined by release patterns and isotopic considerations. One of the reservoirs, near grain surfaces, yields elemental ratios that for the most part are “solar” while the other, sited at greater depths within grains, has severely fractionated elemental abundances and generally heavier isotopic ratios as well. Xenon provides an exception to the solar abundance pattern in the near-surface reservoir, being enhanced by about a factor of 2 relative to the expected value. A comparison of the 79035 separate with a previously analyzed ilmenite from soil 71501, which received its solar wind exposure much more recently, indicates that the two-fold xenon enhancement occurs in the fractionated reservoir as well as the “solar” one, and that it may therefore be attributable to a change in the solar wind elemental abundances. Other differences between the two ilmenites occur in helium and neon isotopic ratios and in He Ar elemental ratios. Since mineralogical influences on retentivities of the gases in the two samples should be the same, and possible contributions of non-solar wind components to one ilmenite in preference to the other can generally be eliminated or accounted for, all of these differences may reflect changes in the solar wind over time.