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Article

Elemental Abundances of Moon Samples Based on Statistical Distributions of Analytical Data

by
Zhiguan Hou
1,
Qingjie Gong
1,*,
Ningqiang Liu
1,
Biao Jiang
2,*,
Jie Li
1,
Yuan Wu
1,
Jiaxin Huang
1 and
Weixuan Gu
1
1
School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
2
Institute of Mineral Resources, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(1), 360; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13010360
Submission received: 30 November 2022 / Revised: 22 December 2022 / Accepted: 25 December 2022 / Published: 27 December 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances and Illustrations in Applied Geochemistry)
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Abstract

:
The successful return of Chang’E-5 (CE5) samples urges the hot topic of the study of the Moon in geochemistry. The elemental data of the analyzed moon samples reported in the literature were collected to determine the elemental abundances in moon samples. Based on 2365 analytical records of moon samples from ten missions of Apollo, Luna, and CE5, elemental abundances of 11 major oxides including Cr2O3, 50 trace elements including Ti, P, Mn, Cr, and 15 rare earth elements (REEs) including Y are derived based on statistical distributions of normal, log-normal, and additive log-ratio transformation, respectively. According to the value of 13.5% CaO content, moon samples are classified into two types, as low-Ca and high-Ca samples, whose elemental abundances are also calculated respectively based on the methods used in the total moon samples. With respect to the mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) of the Earth, moon samples (including the Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca samples) are rich in Cr, REEs, Th, U, Pb, Zr, Hf, Cs, Ba, W, and Be and poor in Na, V, Cu, and Zn in terms of their concentrations, and are enriched in Cr and depleted in Na, K, Rb, P, V, Cu, Zn in spider diagrams. The CE5 sample is a low-Ca type of moon sample and is clearly rich in Ti, Fe, Mn, P, Sc, REEs, Th, U, Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, Sr, Ba, W, and Be and poor in Mg, Al, Cr, and Ni in terms of their concentrations relative to the moon or the low-Ca samples. If compared with the moon sample, the CE5 sample is also clearly rich in K, REE, and P.

1. Introduction

The successful return of Chang’E-5 (CE5) has marked China as the third country to retrieve moon samples after the United States and the former Soviet Union. Studies on the returned samples have been an interesting and hot topic in geochemistry recently [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Elemental abundance is a basic topic in geochemistry, such as in the Earth [12,13,14,15,16]; therefore, the elemental composition of CE5 samples and moon samples from the Apollo and Luna missions is very attractive to geochemists.
On the elemental compositions of moon samples, Rose et al. [17,18,19,20,21] proposed the compositions from the Apollo missions. Samples in each Apollo mission were divided into the types of soil and rock, and the average elemental concentrations were used to represent their compositions. However, the analyzed samples or sample count from each mission was mostly less than 30, and items of major oxides, trace elements, and rare earth elements (REEs) were limited, such as 11 major oxides (including Cr2O3), 14 trace elements, and 3 REEs (Table 1). In addition, Taylor et al. [22] proposed a set of average elemental compositions in the lunar highland, including 8 major oxides (lack of P2O5 and MnO), 16 trace elements, and 14 REEs based on 4 samples from Apollo 17 and 6 samples from Apollo 16 (Table 1). Korotev [23] proposed the compositions of Apollo 16 soils, including 8 major oxides, 12 trace elements, and 8 REEs based on 8 sampling stations with 2~6 samples in each station (Table 1). Warren and Taylor [24] proposed the compositions of mare basalts and highland regolith on the Moon. The compositions of mare basalts include 8 major oxides, 10 trace elements, and 5 REEs derived from the elemental averages of mare basalts from all the Apollo and Luna missions except Apollo 16 and Luna 20. The sample count of the mare basalts is less than 200 from the Apollo missions and less than 20 from the Luna missions. The compositions of highland regolith, including 9 major oxides (lack of P2O5), 12 trace elements, and 9 REEs, were derived based on the statistical average of soils from Apollo 16, 2 regolith breccias from Apollo 14, and 7 lunar meteorites (Table 1). Although the elemental data from CE5 samples have been reported recently [1,2,3,5,6,7], the elemental compositions or abundances of moon samples are incomplete, which were derived based on only a few analytical samples with limited items (Table 1).
In this paper, the analytical data reported in the literature on moon samples from Apollo, Luna, and CE5 missions were compiled firstly. Then the elemental abundances of moon samples were derived based on statistical distributions of the analytical data. Thirdly, the moon samples were classified into two types according to their concentrations of CaO, and the elemental abundances of each type were also calculated. Finally, the elemental compositions of CE5 samples were compared with the newly derived elemental abundances of moon samples.

2. Samples and Analytical Methods

2.1. Samples

The exploration and research of the Moon have been launched since 1957 [25]. In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission realized a manned moon landing and retrieved moon samples, which shifted the research on the Moon from theoretical conception to practical analysis [26,27,28,29,30,31]. Then in 1970, Luna 16 realized an unmanned moon landing sampling [32,33,34]. In 2020, Chang’E-5 (CE5) brought back moon samples [35]. So far, humans have retrieved moon samples 10 times, including 6 Apollo missions, 3 Luna missions, and the Chang’E-5 mission (Figure 1). The uppermost few meters of the Moon’s crust, from which all the moon samples came, is a layer of loose, highly porous regolith or moon soil [24]. Samples from the Apollo missions contain lumps of rocks, breccias, surface soils, and core soils. The Apollo missions brought back a total of 380.95 kg of samples (Table 2), of which rock and breccia samples were picked up by the astronauts on the surface, and soil samples were mainly extracted by the surface scoop and deep drilling core, with a depth of 2 to 3 m. The Luna missions brought back a total of 0.301 kg of samples (Table 2). The sampling method was mechanical core drilling with a depth of 0.2 to 1.6 m. As for the CE5 mission, it brought back a total of 1.731 kg of lunar samples [1,2,3,5,6,7]. The sampling methods were mechanical shovel sampling and drilling sampling, but the drilling samples have not been analyzed or reported until now.

2.2. Analytical Methods

The Apollo samples were first analyzed by the Lunar Sample Preliminary Examination Team of NASA. It reported a few samples’ composition data, including major oxides and some trace elements without REEs for each mission [26,27,28,29,30,31]. Later, other experts and scholars applied to NASA for samples, of which the analytical composition data have been reported one after another [17,18,19,20,21,36,37]. The samples from the Luna missions were first analyzed and tested by the former Soviet Union [32,33,34]. Then after exchanging with the United States, the composition data was also analyzed and reported [32,33,34,38,39,40]. The composition data of CE5 samples have been analyzed and reported only recently [1,2,3,5,6,7].
The main analytical methods used to determine the composition data of moon samples are X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), instrumental neutron activation analysis (INNA), and electron microprobe analysis (EPMA), which can analyze many items such as major oxides, some trace elements, and/or REEs simultaneously [17,36,37,38]. In addition, other analytical methods such as isotope dilution analyses (IDA), emission spectrography (ES), and radiochemical neutron activation (RCNA) were adopted to analyze the composition of Rb, Sr, Zr, Re, Au, etc. [41,42,43]. The analytical quality, such as the detection limits, precisions, accuracies, relative errors, and relative standard deviations, were illustrated in the original literature. In general, the relative errors were less than 5% for major oxides and 10% for trace elements, including REEs.
All the analytical data collected in this paper are from moon samples brought back from the Apollo, Luna, and CE5 missions (excluding meteorites found on the Earth) and have been reported in the literature. The analyzed samples are soils, breccias, and rocks, and the counts of analytical samples (or records) in each mission or landing site are listed in Table 2. There are 2365 records of analytical data of moon samples used in this paper in total.

3. Statistical Methods and Results

3.1. Elemental Abundances in Moon Samples

In order to calculate the elemental abundances in moon samples, a total of 2365 records of analytical data were used with equal weight, ignoring the different missions or landing sites, sample types, and analytical methods from the literature.
According to the rule of “The contents of major oxides commonly obey normal distribution”, the average of the analytical data excluding outliers was calculated as the abundance for each major oxide here. Firstly, the average (Avg) and standard deviation (Std) of each oxide’s data were calculated for all the samples (the count of samples is labeled as n0). Then, the boundary values of Avg ± 3Std were used to delete the outliers repeatedly until no outlier data were found. Finally, the average of each oxide’s data without outliers (the count of samples is labeled as n) was calculated and viewed as its abundance. The abundances of 11 major oxides (including Cr2O3) along with counts of samples (n0 and n) are listed in Table 3, and statistical histograms of major oxides are illustrated in Figure 2. The sum of the 11 major oxides (or Total in Table 2) is 99.10%, which is close to the closure value of 100%.
According to the rule of “The contents of trace elements commonly obey log-normal distributions”, the geometric average of analytical data excluding outliers was calculated as the abundance for each trace element. The elemental abundances of 50 trace elements (including Ti, P, Mn, and Cr), along with their counts of samples (n0 and n), are also listed in Table 3.
REE pattern is a useful tool for traceability or provenance in geochemistry [44,45], and the key signature is the variation trend of the pattern, which is dependent on REE concentrations. Therefore, the covariation of REE abundances needs to be considered. Here, the additive log-ratio (alr) transformation method [46,47] was adopted to calculate the REE (including Y) abundances, and Yb was selected as the denominator to calculate the ratios for other REEs. Yb was selected as the denominator of the alr transformation method because it not only has the largest count of analyzed samples (n0 = 1680 and n = 1652) but also obeys the log-normal distribution well relative to the other REEs. According to the geometric average of Yb without outliers, 5.84 μg/g was set as its abundance of moon samples and was used to calculate the abundances of the other REEs (including Y). The abundances of 15 REEs (including Y) with their counts of samples (n0 and n) are also listed in Table 3.

3.2. Elemental Abundances in Moon Samples with Low-Ca and High-Ca

Although elemental abundances in moon samples were derived based on statistical distributions such as normal, log-normal, and alr-normal distributions, some items clearly deviate from their ideal distributions, such as CaO, FeO, Al2O3, TiO2, P2O5, Cr2O3, etc., as shown in Figure 2. It is worth mentioning that the distribution of CaO contents is near a bimodal distribution (Figure 2). In order to derive more meaningful elemental abundances, moon samples were classified into two types, as low-Ca and high-Ca samples, based on the CaO content boundary of 13.5% used in this paper.
In the total 2365 analyzed moon samples, there were only 1979 records with valid CaO contents. According to the content boundary of 13.5% CaO, there were 1468 records classified as low-Ca samples and 511 as high-Ca samples. Therefore, moon samples with low Ca were about three-quarters of the total moon samples collected in this paper, and samples with high Ca were about one-quarter.
With respect to the low-Ca moon samples and high-Ca moon samples, we used the same statistical methods as adopted for the total moon samples to calculate the elemental abundances of each type separately. The abundances of each type are also listed in Table 3, along with their counts of samples (n0 and n).

4. Discussion

4.1. Geochemical Signatures of Elemental Abundances

Based on the elemental abundances of the moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca samples in Table 2, we compared their geochemical signatures with the elemental abundances of carbonaceous chondrite CI [12], primitive mantle [13], bulk oceanic crust [14], mid-ocean ridge basalt (including those of Atlantic, India, and Pacific [14]), continental crust (including total continental crust, lower continental crust, middle continental crust, and upper continental crust [15]), and rocks of China (including acidic rock, intermediate rock, and basic rock of China [16]) and found moon samples are more close to the mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) of the Earth. Here, only the comparison results with the MORB were illustrated to derive the geochemical signatures of moon samples.

4.1.1. Major Oxides

According to the illustration method of spider diagrams, the 11 major oxides were first sequenced descending on their abundances of moon samples. Then, moon samples were normalized based on the MORB of the Earth. Finally, the spider diagrams of major oxides of moon samples were derived and illustrated in Figure 3.
With respect to the MORB, the moon sample (labeled as Moon in Figure 3) is clearly rich in Cr2O3 and TiO2 and poor in K2O in terms of their concentrations. The moon sample with low-Ca (labeled as Low-Ca in Figure 3) is also clearly rich in Cr2O3 and TiO2 and poor in K2O, like the moon sample. While the moon sample with high-Ca (labeled as High-Ca in Figure 3) is clearly rich in Cr2O3 and Al2O3 and poor in Na2O, TiO2, MnO, and FeO in terms of their concentrations. In the three abundances of moon samples, the moon sample with low-Ca is closer to the MORB, except for the clear signature of higher concentrations of Cr2O3 and TiO2 and lower concentrations of K2O.
With respect to the MORB, the moon samples (including Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca in Figure 3) are clearly enriched in Cr and depleted in Na in the diagrams. Here, the terms of rich and poor are used for concentrations (comparison between/among samples), and the terms of enriched and depleted are used for diagrams (comparison among elements in the same sample).

4.1.2. REEs

The REE patterns of the three abundances of moon samples (including Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca) are illustrated in Figure 4.
With respect to the MORB, the REE patterns of the Moon and low-Ca samples (Figure 4) are near flat, except for the clear negative Eu anomaly. While the pattern of high-Ca (Figure 4) is tilted right for light REEs and nearly flat for heavy REEs. Therefore, the Moon and low-Ca samples are closer to the MORB than the high-Ca samples in the REE pattern, except for the clear negative Eu anomaly. With respect to the absolute concentrations of REEs, the three abundances of moon samples (including Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca) are all higher or richer than those of the MORB. The descending sequence of total REE concentrations is (CE5 discussed in the following), low-Ca, Moon, high-Ca, and the MORB (Figure 4).

4.1.3. Trace Elements

Trace elements are illustrated using the spider diagram suggested by Sun and McDonough [48], with 31 elements, including K, P, and Ti. In order to avoid the repetition of REEs, the Ce and Eu were deleted from the spider diagram in which Ce and Eu are following the La and Sm, respectively. Therefore, a total of 29 elements (including K, P, and Ti) were used to draw the spider diagrams of the moon samples, which are illustrated in Figure 5.
With respect to the MORB in terms of their concentrations, the moon samples (including the Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca) are all clearly rich in Cs, Ba, W, Th, U, and Pb (Figure 5).
With respect to the MORB, spider diagrams of moon samples (including the Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca) are nearly flat (variations are limited to one order of magnitude), except for the clear depletion in Rb, K, and P (Figure 5). Furthermore, the diagram of high-Ca is also clearly depleted in Ti (Figure 5).

4.1.4. Other Trace Elements

Except for the aforementioned major oxides, REEs, and trace elements, there are only eight remaining elements of Sc, V, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Be, and B, which are reported abundances both of moon samples and the MORB. Here we supplement Ti, Cr, Mn, and Fe to the eight elements to form a series of the first transition elements plus Be and B. Therefore, 12 elements were used to form the spider diagrams of the moon samples which are illustrated in Figure 6.
With respect to the MORB in terms of their concentrations, the moon samples (including the Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca) are all clearly rich in Cr, Ni, and Be and poor in V, Cu, and Zn (Figure 6).
With respect to the MORB, the spider diagrams of moon samples (including the Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca) are nearly flat (variations are limited to one order of magnitude), except for the clear enrichment in Cr and depletion in V, Cu, and Zn (Figure 6). In addition, the diagram for the high-Ca moon sample is also clearly enriched in Ni and B (Figure 6).
In summary, the geochemical signatures of major oxides, REEs, and trace elements in moon samples (including the Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca) are rich in Cr, REEs, Th, U, Pb, Zr, Hf, Cs, Ba, W, and Be and poor in Na, V, Cu, and Zn in terms of their concentrations, and are enriched in Cr and depleted in Na, K, Rb, P, V, Cu, and Zn in the spider diagrams, relative to the MORB. Among the total moon samples, low-Ca samples, and high-Ca samples, the low-Ca samples are closer to the total moon samples in concentration or patterns (or diagrams), which is not only illustrated in Figure 3 to Figure 6 but also consistent with the counts of analytical data with equal weighting used in this study. Except the 46 elements discussed in this paper, the other 26 elemental abundances in moon samples are not discussed here because of the data lack on the MORB.

4.2. Chang’E-5 Samples

4.2.1. Elemental Concentrations

Here we compile the analyzed elemental data of CE5 samples reported recently. The averages are used to represent the elemental concentrations of the CE5 samples which include 33 analyzed records, including two repetitions reported by different authors. If the elemental concentrations were only reported by Zong et al. [7], the suggested concentrations by Zong et al. [7] are used in this paper.
The calculated elemental concentrations of the CE5 samples are also listed in Table 3, including 11 major oxides, 15 REEs (including Y), and 28 trace elements (including Ti, P, Mn, and Cr).

4.2.2. Geochemical Signatures

The content of CaO of CE5 is 11.36%, which is lower than the boundary value of 13.5% for low-Ca and high-Ca moon samples. Therefore, the CE5 sample is the low-Ca type of moon sample. In terms of Ti content, moon samples can be divided into three types: high Ti (TiO2 ≥ 6%), low Ti (1% ≤ TiO2 < 6%), and very low Ti (TiO2 < 1%) [11]. The content of TiO2 of CE5 is 5.43%, which indicates that the CE5 sample is the low Ti type of moon sample.
According to the illustrations of moon samples, the geochemical signatures of the CE sample are also illustrated in Figure 3 to Figure 6.
With respect to the MORB, the CE5 sample is clearly rich in Cr2O3, TiO2, and FeO and poor in Na2O (Figure 3) in major oxides in terms of their concentrations, and is also enriched in Cr2O3, TiO2, and FeO and depleted in Na2O in the diagrams. The REE pattern of CE5 is tilted right slowly, except for the clear negative Eu anomaly, and its REE concentrations are clearly higher than those of the MORB (Figure 4). In the spider diagrams (Figure 5 and Figure 6), the CE5 sample is clearly rich in Cs, Ba, W, Th, U, Nb, Ta, Pb, Zr, Hf, Ti, Li, Sr, Cr, and Be and poor in V, Cu, and Zn in terms of their concentrations, and is enriched in Cr and depleted in Rb, K, P, V, Cu, and Zn in the spider diagrams. Among the total moon sample, low-Ca sample, and high-Ca sample, the CE5 sample is closer to the low-Ca sample in concentrations or patterns (or diagrams), which are illustrated in Figure 3 to Figure 6. This is consistent with the low-Ca type of moon samples discriminated on CaO content, as mentioned previously.
With respect to the total moon sample, the CE5 sample is clearly rich in Ti, Fe, Mn, P, Sc, K, REEs, Th, U, Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, Sr, Ba, W, and Be and poor in Mg, Al, Cr, and Ni in terms of their concentrations. From this view, the CE5 sample is the KREEP type of moon sample [49,50] because it is rich in K, REEs, and P relative to the moon sample. However, the contents of K2O in the CE5 sample and the low-Ca sample are 0.175% and 0.171%, respectively, which are almost the same within the relative error. From this view, the CE5 sample is the non-KREEP type of moon sample [1] because of the non-enrichment of K relative to the low-Ca moon sample.
Except for the aforementioned studies on the CE5, more and more articles are being published [51,52,53,54] on hot and interesting topics, which are very helpful in promoting the research of the Moon. The elemental abundances of the CE5 sample in this paper will be improved on with more studies in the near future.

5. Conclusions

(1)
The elemental abundances of moon samples, including the moon sample, the low-Ca moon sample, and the high-Ca moon sample, were derived from statistical distributions of analytical data reported in the literature. The classification criterion of low-Ca and high-Ca types of moon samples was 13.5% CaO content.
(2)
With respect to the MORB of the Earth, the moon samples (including the Moon, low-Ca, and high-Ca samples) were rich in Cr, REEs, Th, U, Pb, Zr, Hf, Cs, Ba, W, and Be and poor in Na, V, Cu, and Zn in terms of their concentrations, and were enriched in Cr and depleted in Na, K, Rb, P, V, Cu, and Zn in the spider diagrams.
(3)
The CE5 sample is the low-Ca type of moon sample and is clearly rich in Ti, Fe, Mn, P, Sc, REEs, Th, U, Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, Sr, Ba, W, and Be and poor in Mg, Al, Cr, and Ni in terms of their concentrations relative to the moon and the low-Ca moon samples. If compared with only the moon sample, the CE5 sample is also clearly rich in K, REE, and P.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, Z.H., Q.G., B.J., J.L. and Y.W.; Methodology, Q.G. and N.L.; Formal analysis, Z.H.; Data curation, Z.H., N.L., B.J., J.L., Y.W., J.H. and W.G.; Writing—original draft, Z.H.; Writing—review & editing, Q.G. and N.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

We thank the authors who reported the geochemical data of moon samples used in this manuscript. We greatly appreciate the comments from the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions to improve the quality of this manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Applsci 13 00360 g001 550
Figure 1. The landing sites of Apollo, Luna, and Chang’E-5 missions.
Figure 1. The landing sites of Apollo, Luna, and Chang’E-5 missions.
Applsci 13 00360 g001
Applsci 13 00360 g002 550
Figure 2. Histograms of major oxides with their counts of samples (n0 is the count of total analytical data and n is the count of analytical data without outliers). The histogram of K2O contents is drawn without the three highest values of 5.8, 3.2, and 3.1, and the histogram of P2O5 contents is without the two highest values of 1.38 and 1.1.
Figure 2. Histograms of major oxides with their counts of samples (n0 is the count of total analytical data and n is the count of analytical data without outliers). The histogram of K2O contents is drawn without the three highest values of 5.8, 3.2, and 3.1, and the histogram of P2O5 contents is without the two highest values of 1.38 and 1.1.
Applsci 13 00360 g002
Applsci 13 00360 g003 550
Figure 3. Spider diagrams of major oxides of moon samples normalized based on MORB. Abundances of the MORB are from White and Klein [14]. Elements in the horizontal axis are the abbreviations of their major oxides listed in Table 2.
Figure 3. Spider diagrams of major oxides of moon samples normalized based on MORB. Abundances of the MORB are from White and Klein [14]. Elements in the horizontal axis are the abbreviations of their major oxides listed in Table 2.
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Applsci 13 00360 g004 550
Figure 4. REE patterns of moon samples normalized to the MORB. Abundances of the MORB are from White and Klein [14].
Figure 4. REE patterns of moon samples normalized to the MORB. Abundances of the MORB are from White and Klein [14].
Applsci 13 00360 g004
Applsci 13 00360 g005 550
Figure 5. Spider diagrams of moon samples normalized to the MORB. Abundances of the MORB are from White and Klein [14].
Figure 5. Spider diagrams of moon samples normalized to the MORB. Abundances of the MORB are from White and Klein [14].
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Applsci 13 00360 g006 550
Figure 6. Spider diagrams of moon samples on first transition elements plus Be and B normalized to the MORB. Abundances of the MORB are from White and Klein [14].
Figure 6. Spider diagrams of moon samples on first transition elements plus Be and B normalized to the MORB. Abundances of the MORB are from White and Klein [14].
Applsci 13 00360 g006
Table
Table 1. Sample counts and element counts of analyzed moon samples.
Table 1. Sample counts and element counts of analyzed moon samples.
ReferencesRose et al. [17,18,19,20,21]Taylor et al. [22]Korotev [23]Warren and Taylor [24]
SamplesApollo MissionsLunar HighlandApollo 16 SoilsMare BasaltsHighland Regolith
Counts of samples/records<3010<50<22010
Counts of major oxides118889
Counts of trace elements1416121012
Counts of rare earth elements314859
Table
Table 2. The counts of analyzed records collected in this paper from each mission with other information.
Table 2. The counts of analyzed records collected in this paper from each mission with other information.
MissionLongitudeLatitudeCounts of SamplesWeight of Samples (kg)
Apollo 1123.472970.6740818321.55
Apollo 12−23.42157−3.0123921834.30
Apollo 14−17.47136−3.645327242.80
Apollo 153.6338626.1322236476.70
Apollo 1615.49812−8.9730168595.20
Apollo 1730.7716820.1908476110.40
Luna 1656.3−0.68330.101
Luna 2056.53.57340.030
Luna 2462.212.75670.170
Chang’E-5−51.91643.058331.731
Sum--2365382.982
Table
Table 3. Elemental abundances in moon samples with their counts of samples (n0 and n).
Table 3. Elemental abundances in moon samples with their counts of samples (n0 and n).
Oxides/Moon Low-Ca High-Ca CE5
ElementsAbundancen0nAbundancen0nAbundancen0nAbundance
SiO244.891392137544.78102910154534632741.51
Al2O317.491885188514.171379137727.6646644710.93
FeO12.152062206114.59145614544.9851146422.7
TiO22.52185117233.98138313790.4314444195.43
CaO12.111979195910.931468144015.6951149311.36
MgO8.83184217939.77135913025.754624616.21
Na2O0.443204019840.449145214220.4585094850.434
K2O0.11176914780.171127711810.0884093930.175
P2O50.1235965120.184764610.1061201200.248
MnO0.169176317570.194134713410.0613623360.285
Cr2O30.269201219740.316138413640.0954584450.199
Total99.1--99.53--100.32--99.49
Ag5.111211211.138381211-
As0.05479790.05752520.0271414-
Au3.915725284.243663474.4687878.8
B3.8820193.4219183911-
Ba16214881466202962957106307297388
Be1.351861852.0386851.0622222.84
Bi0.000695930.016755-00-
Br0.07684840.06538380.0999-
Cd12.414514459.932327.22121-
Cl13.5787812525222.71313-
Co32.21675160835.11096106225.432232237.7
Cr1546197019332046138413546074294291359
Cs0.1365835790.2422472470.1181521520.205
Cu9.454484379.52382294.77838312.2
F67484886373729.21111-
Ga4.596135745.553843573.421001005.79
Ge0.081811810.08775750.2191515-
Hf5.5140113726.849609542.9524824813.8
In0.00541591590.008140400.00431414-
Ir8.16025598.636735910.21161163.61
Li9.534734012.31741746.24656515.4
Mn1167176117341441134713254903413202205
Mo0.11989850.23923230.014220.033
Nb12.254553715.73333326.67969635.6
Ni21314131323208837806288330329139
Os1.6710310315.712127.511-
P2678408406264764763951151151080
Pb1.422152112.4481802.0847471.89
Pd3.531361367.344442.922-
Pt9.313139.41212911-
Rb2.928548454.344474471.971421395.63
Re0.1671241240.46430302.3122-
Rh16.72216.722-00-
Ru13.7292810.1191823.71010-
S8192482358811931895924645-
Sb0.00541821820.06825250.00791616-
Sc25.61613160036.1103910358.334733463.5
Se0.0681461420.34632320.20477-
Sn0.49779790.36123230.0742121-
Sr15013371305148871857165264261309
Ta0.82119311761.088388270.3842202191.81
Te0.005394930.027110.511-
Th1.99114011272.367557521.582622554.98
Ti11009185018351706313831378258142940832526
Tl0.003241061060.01114140.000611-
U0.639869590.885895890.4651961851.36
V64107710707976375119.818818793.1
W0.2071701700.33192920.22912120.54
Zn1364364018.53413406.6929214.5
Zr222979961288601598134222222523
La12.31553153214.7105010418.5728424935.6
Ce35.11429140742.794694222.526524697.7
Pr51961957.2587872.9302612.6
Nd24.61102108131.275274013.715914959.7
Sm7.5147314039.489849443.8926124816.9
Eu1.35149914431.5210049971.072692612.58
Gd9.834633512.51431414.67545219.3
Tb1.67131512682.128868510.82552493.28
Dy10.51103101713.37596895.0416315220.4
Ho2.365404903.043463021.1374714.14
Er6.53753488.41701573.11434011.2
Tm0.93773141.152562080.45845421.48
Yb5.84168016527.39112611212.883033019.75
Lu0.84141413121.079428550.4132632451.36
Y604264077325924331.46764116
Note: The units of major oxides and trace elements (including REEs) are % and µg/g, respectively, except Ag, Au, Cd, Re, Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, Pt, which are in ng/g.
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Hou, Z.; Gong, Q.; Liu, N.; Jiang, B.; Li, J.; Wu, Y.; Huang, J.; Gu, W. Elemental Abundances of Moon Samples Based on Statistical Distributions of Analytical Data. Appl. Sci. 2023, 13, 360. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13010360

AMA Style

Hou Z, Gong Q, Liu N, Jiang B, Li J, Wu Y, Huang J, Gu W. Elemental Abundances of Moon Samples Based on Statistical Distributions of Analytical Data. Applied Sciences. 2023; 13(1):360. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13010360

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hou, Zhiguan, Qingjie Gong, Ningqiang Liu, Biao Jiang, Jie Li, Yuan Wu, Jiaxin Huang, and Weixuan Gu. 2023. "Elemental Abundances of Moon Samples Based on Statistical Distributions of Analytical Data" Applied Sciences 13, no. 1: 360. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13010360

APA Style

Hou, Z., Gong, Q., Liu, N., Jiang, B., Li, J., Wu, Y., Huang, J., & Gu, W. (2023). Elemental Abundances of Moon Samples Based on Statistical Distributions of Analytical Data. Applied Sciences, 13(1), 360. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13010360

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