8. 52nd Lunar & Planetary Science Conference

Opening video screen display of my virtual presentation at LPSC 52, 03/17/2021.

After cancelation of last year’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, LPSC 51, this year’s LPSC meeting was a virtual one for oral presenters in which their 15 minute presentations were uploaded as video files. The title of my talk, “Apollo 17 Deep Drill Core 70001/9:  Large Impact Ages at Taurus-Littrow, Recorded Increase in Solar Luminance, and Implications for ANGSA Studies” was made available to attendees on Wed., March 17, 2021, Track 1, 12:30 p.m. Special Session: – Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) I:  Fulfilling Apollo Goals And Preparing For Artemis, New Results From Special Apollo Samples, led by Chip Shearer of the University of New Mexico and Francis McCubbin of NASA. I have the privilege of being part of the ANGSA team.

Briefly, the subject matter utilizes Dick Morris’s data on maturity indices and Fiona Thiessen’s and Bob Clayton’s nitrogen isotopic measurements to provide new insights into the depositional and exposure history of regolith zones in the Apollo 17 deep drill core (~3 m). Most significantly, so far this on-going synthesis establishes an age for Camelot Crater close to ~450 Myr; demonstrates a change in the energy of the solar wind at about 536 Myr (Cambium Explosion on Earth was at ~540 Myr); provides approximate ages for seven other impact events at Taurus-Littrow; suggests maturity and isotopic analyses that should be performed by the ANGSA team on drive tube core 73001/2; and leads to a significant number of other implications in the geology of Taurus-Littrow and the history of the Moon and Sun. These conclusions will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 13 of the Diary of the 12th Man, also being publshed on this web site.

The abstract, [#2575], can be downloaded as a 2-page PDF file from here; however, as usual, the video presentation includes additional information and modifications relative to this earlier version of the talk.

The complete video presentation can be watched and/or downloaded (164 Mb) from this link.