Soil Formation Processes
The major processes involved in the formation of lunar soil are:
- Comminution: mechanical breaking of rocks and minerals into smaller particles by meteorite and micrometeorite impact;
- Agglutination: welding of mineral and rock fragments together by micrometeorite-impact-produced glass; and
- Solar wind spallatation and implantation: sputtering caused by impacts of ions and high energy particles
These processes not only form lunar soil, they also continue to change the physical and optical properties of the soil over time; this process is known as space weathering.
In addition, fire fountaining, whereby volcanic lava is lofted and cools into small glass beads before falling back to the surface, can create small but important deposits in some locations, such as the orange soil found at Shorty Crater in the Taurus-Littrow valley on Apollo 17, and the green glass found at Hadley-Apennine found on Apollo 15. Deposits of volcanic beads are also thought to be the origin of Dark Mantle Deposits (DMD) in other locations around the Moon.
Read more about this topic: Lunar Soil
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