Journal articles: 'Regolith properties'

1

Beddingfield, Chloe B., and Richard J. Cartwright. "Miranda's Thick Regolith Indicates a Major Mantling Event from an Unknown Source." Planetary Science Journal 3, no. 11 (November 1, 2022): 253. http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/psj/ac9a4e.

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Abstract We investigated “muted” craters and scarps across Miranda’s cratered terrain. The morphologies of the muted craters are most consistent with modification by regolith deposition instead of erosion or viscous relaxation. We used three techniques to estimate regolith thickness. (1) Analysis of muted crater depth–Diameter (d-D) ratios near the South Polar Terrain Chasma indicates that regolith mantling their floors ranges from 0.3 to 1.2 km thick. Because older craters may have collected more regolith than younger craters, the true thickness may be similar to the highest estimate. (2) Analysis of crater size–frequency distributions across the cratered terrain indicates a thickness of 1.0 ± 0.2 km. (3) Analysis of a central mound within Alonso Crater indicates a thickness of 1.4 − 0.4 + 0.3 km near Verona Rupes and may represent an upper limit. These results indicate that Miranda has one of the thickest regoliths in the solar system, which has important implications for Miranda’s interior thermal properties. Regolith appears to mantle some scarps within Arden but not Elsinore or Inverness, indicating that Arden may be the oldest corona, contrary to previous relative age estimates. In this scenario, the mantling event was ongoing during Arden’s formation but before Elsinore or Inverness formed. We propose three possible sources for Miranda’s thick regolith: (1) giant impact ejecta, (2) plume deposits, and (3) Uranian ring deposits. We favor the ring deposit hypothesis, which is consistent with the regolith’s large spatial extent, substantial thickness, and Miranda’s slightly spectrally blue color. Follow-up studies that rigorously investigate these scenarios are required.

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2

Hodder, A. P. W., and M. Z. Graham. "Earthquake Microzoning from Soil Properties." Earthquake Spectra 9, no. 2 (May 1993): 209–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1193/1.1585713.

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The extent of damage caused by an earthquake in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1968 to buildings erected on a variety of regoliths and foundation materials is correlated with the thickness of the regolith, the depth to the water table and semi-quantitative parameters derived from soil profile descriptions, particularly related to soil type and soil structure. From linear regression correlations, the expected damage for a comparable earthquake elsewhere can be determined. The model was tested for soil data for the Edgecumbe area, hit by a damaging earthquake in 1987. The predictions were sufficiently in accord with observations to suggest that soil properties that reflect the geotechnical properties of the upper parts of the regolith, particularly those that measure the shear strength, shear wave velocity and viscous damping of that material, may be useful for earthquake microzoning purposes in areas where there is a considerable thickness of unconsolidated materials above bedrock.

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3

Paton, M. D., A. M. Harri, T. Mäkinen, and S. F. Green. "Investigating thermal properties of gas-filled planetary regoliths using a thermal probe." Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems 1, no. 1 (March 29, 2012): 7–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gi-1-7-2012.

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Abstract. We introduce a general purpose penetrator, fitted with a heater, for measuring temperature and thermal diffusivity. Due to its simplicity of deployment and operation the penetrator is well suited for remote deployment by spacecraft into a planetary regolith. Thermal measurements in planetary regoliths are required to determine the surface energy balance and to measure their thermal properties. If the regolith is on a planet with an atmosphere a good understanding of the role of convection is required to properly interpret the measurements. This could also help to identify the significant heat and mass exchange mechanisms between the regolith and the atmosphere. To understand the role of convection in our regolith analogues we use a network of temperature sensors placed in the target. In practical applications a penetrator will push material out of the way as it enters a target possible changing its thermal properties. To investigate this effect a custom built test rig, that precisely controls and monitors the motion of the penetrator, is used. The thermal diffusivity of limestone powder and sand is derived by fitting a numerical thermal model to the temperature measurements. Convection seems to play an important role in the transfer of heat in this case. Firstly a diffusion-convection model fits the laboratory data better than a diffusivity-only model. Also the diffusivity derived from a diffusivity-convection model was found to be in good agreement with diffusivity derived using other methods published in the literature. Thermal diffusivity measurements, inspection of the horizontal temperature profiles and visual observations suggests that limestone powder is compacted more readily than sand during entry of the penetrator into the target. For both regolith analogues the disturbance of material around the penetrator was determined to have an insignificant effect on the diffusivity measurements in this case.

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4

Johnson, Stewart W., and Koon Meng Chua. "Properties and Mechanics of the Lunar Regolith." Applied Mechanics Reviews 46, no. 6 (June 1, 1993): 285–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.3120358.

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Knowledge of the lunar regolith is essential to success in lunar missions whether crewed or robotic. The regolith is the loose material overlying more intact strata on the Moon. It varies in thickness from several meters on the maria or lunar seas to many meters on the highlands of the Moon. The regolith is the material humans walked and drove on from 1969 to 1972. In the future, people will use it for radiation protection and as a resource for recovery of oxygen, silicon, iron, aluminum, and titanium. Implanted in the regolith by the solar wind are recoverable amounts of volatiles such as hydrogen and helium. Increasing our knowledge of the mechanical properties of the regolith will enable constructors of the 21st Century to build habitats, do mining, establish manufacturing, and erect telescopes on the Moon. We already know much of the regolith from robotic and astronaut missions to the Moon. There is much more to be learned.

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Sokołowska, Joanna J., Piotr Woyciechowski, and Maciej Kalinowski. "Rheological Properties of Lunar Mortars." Applied Sciences 11, no. 15 (July 28, 2021): 6961. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/app11156961.

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NASA has revealed that they plan to resume manned missions and ensure the permanent presence of people in the so-called habitats on the Moon by 2024. Moon habitats are expected to be built using local resources—it is planned to use lunar regolith as aggregate in lunar concrete. Lunar concrete design requires a new approach in terms of both the production technology and the operating conditions significantly different from the Earth. Considering that more and more often it is assumed that the water present on the Moon in the form of ice might be used to maintain the base, but also to construct the base structure, the authors decided to investigate slightly more traditional composites than the recently promoted sulfur and polymer composites thermally hardened and cured. Numerous compositions of cement “lunar micro-mortars” and “lunar mortars” were made and tested to study rheological properties, namely, the consistency, which largely depend on the morphology of the fine-grained filler, i.e., regolith. For obvious reasons, the lunar regolith simulant (LRS) was used in place of the original Moon regolith. The used LRS mapped the grain size distribution and morphology of the real lunar regolith. It was created for the purpose of studying the erosive effect of dusty regolith fractions on the moving parts of lunar landers and other mechanical equipment; therefore, it simulated well the behavior of regolith particles in relation to cement paste. The obtained results made it possible to develop preliminary compositions for “lunar mortars” (possible to apply in, e.g., 3D concrete printing) and to prepare, test, and evaluate mortar properties in comparison to traditional quartz mortars (under the conditions of the Earth laboratory).

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6

Kew, G. A., and R. J. Gilkes. "Properties of regolith beneath lateritic bauxite in the Darling Range of south Western Australia." Soil Research 45, no. 3 (2007): 164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/sr06128.

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A morphological key has been developed for regolith that is exposed during mining of lateritic bauxite in the Darling Range of south Western Australia. The key distinguishes materials with different mineralogical and chemical properties. Iron oxide cemented (Zh) regolith has a gibbsitic matrix, quartz-rich (Zm) regolith has a gibbsite and kaolin matrix, and clay-rich (Zp) regolith has a kaolin matrix. An Si affinity element map (Si, Hf, Th) and a K affinity element group (K, Ba, Rb) are associated with granitic quartz-rich regolith and an Al/Fe element affinity group (Al, Fe, Ti, P, Ni, Co, Cu, Mn, Zn, Ga, Cr, V) is associated with clay and iron rich regolith. Doleritic regolith is generally associated with the Al/Fe affinity group. Although granite and granitic regolith exhibit similar element affinity groups, the abundance of elements within each is highly variable, which reflects the diversity in composition of granite within the region. The degree of euhedral character of clay-size platy crystals (kaolinite/gibbsite) does not differ for materials distinguished by the key, as both quartz-rich (Zm) and clay-rich (Zp) regolith and both granitic and doleritic saprolite contain subhedral kaolin crystals. The crystal size of platy kaolin (approximately 0.5 µm) is similar for different mine pits and for different regolith materials (Zm and Zp) within mine pits. There is a difference in halloysite tube length (0.52–1.18 µm) between mine pits, which may be related to the presence of weathered mica or to the alteration of halloysite in gibbsite-rich regolith. The internal and external diameters of halloysite tubes (about 0.11 and 0.24 µm) are similar for different mine pits and different regolith types within mine pits. The resin used during thin section preparation contains chlorine, so that determination of chlorine by EMPA provides a measure of the porosity of regolith material. A systematic negative relationship exists between chlorine concentration and total oxide weight % of porous regolith matrix determined by EMPA; both measurements provide an indication of the porosity of the clay matrix in regolith.

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7

Shukla, Shashwat, Valentyn Tolpekin, Shashi Kumar, and Alfred Stein. "Investigating the Retention of Solar Wind Implanted Helium-3 on the Moon from the Analysis of Multi-Wavelength Remote Sensing Data." Remote Sensing 12, no. 20 (October 14, 2020): 3350. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs12203350.

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The Moon has a large potential for space exploration and mining valuable resources. In particular, 3He provides rich sources of non-radioactive fusion fuel to fulfill cislunar and Earth’s energy demands, if found economically feasible. The present study focuses on developing advanced techniques to prospect 3He resources on the Moon from multi-sensor remote sensing perspectives. It characterizes optical changes in regolith materials due to space weathering as a new retention parameter and introduces a novel machine learning inversion model for retrieving the physical properties of the regolith. Our analysis suggests that the reddening of the soil predominantly governs the retention, along with attenuated mafic band depths. Moreover, semi-variograms show that the spatial variability of 3He is aligned with the episodic weathering events at different timescales. We also observed that pyroclastic regoliths with high dielectric constant and increased surface scattering mechanisms exhibited a 3He abundant region. For ejecta cover, the retention was weakly associated with the dielectric contrast and a circular polarization ratio (CPR), mainly because of the 3He-deficient nature of the regolith. Furthermore, cross-variograms revealed inherent cyclicity attributed to the sequential process of weathering effects. Our study provides new insights into the physical nature and near-surface alterations of lunar regoliths that influence the spatial distribution and retention of solar wind implanted 3He.

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8

Paton, M. D., A. M. Harri, T. Mäkinen, and S. F. Green. "A penetrator for making thermal measurements in a gas-filled planetary regolith." Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems Discussions 1, no. 1 (December 22, 2011): 109–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gid-1-109-2011.

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Abstract. We introduce a general purpose penetrator, fitted with a heater, for measuring temperature and thermal diffusivity. Due to its simplicity of deployment and operation the thermal penetrator is well suited for remote deployment by spacecraft into a planetary regolith. Thermal measurements in planetary regoliths are required to determine the surface energy balance and to measure their thermal properties. If the regolith is on a planet with an atmosphere a good understanding of the role of convection is required to properly interpret the measurements. This could also help to identify the significant heat and mass exchange mechanisms between the regolith and the atmosphere. To understand the role of convection in our regolith analogues we use a network of temperature sensors placed in the target. In practical applications a penetrator will push material out of the way as it enters a target possible changing its thermal properties. To investigate this effect a custom built test rig, that precisely controls and monitors the motion of the penetrator, is used. The thermal diffusivity of limestone powder and sand is derived by fitting a numerical thermal model to the temperature measurements. Convection seems to play an important role in the transfer of heat in this case. Firstly a diffusion-convection model fits the laboratory data better than a diffusivity-only model. Also the diffusivity derived from a diffusivity-convection model was found to be in good agreement with diffusivity derived using other methods published in the literature. Thermal diffusivity measurements, inspection of the horizontal temperature profiles and visual observations suggests that limestone powder is compacted more readily than sand during entry of the penetrator into the target. For both regolith analogues the disturbance of material around the penetrator was determined to have an insignificant effect on the diffusivity measurements in this case.

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9

Kim, M.-H. Y., S. A. Thibeault, J. W. Wilson, L. C. Simonsen, L. Heilbronn, K. Chang, R. L. Kiefer, J. A. Weakley, and H. G. Maahs. "Development and Testing of in situ Materials for Human Exploration of Mars." High Performance Polymers 12, no. 1 (March 2000): 13–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0954-0083/12/1/302.

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Interplanetary space radiation poses a serious health hazard in long-term manned space missions. Natural Martian surface materials are evaluated for their potential use as radiation shields for manned Mars missions. The modified radiation fluences behind various kinds of Martian rocks and regolith are determined by solving the Boltzmann equation using NASA Langley’s HZETRN code along with the 1977 Solar Minimum galactic cosmic ray environmental model. To make structural shielding composite materials from constituents of the Martian atmosphere and from Martian regolith for Martian surface habitats, schemes for synthesizing polyimide from the Martian atmosphere and for processing Martian regolith/polyimide composites are proposed. Theoretical predictions of the shielding properties of these composites are computed to assess their shielding effectiveness. Adding high-performance polymer binders to Martian regolith to enhance the structural properties also enhances the shielding properties of these composites because of the added hydrogenous constituents. Laboratory testing of regolith simulant/polyimide composites is planned in order to validate this prediction and also to measure various structural properties.

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10

Innes, J. L. "Textural properties of regoliths on vegetated steep slopes in upland regions, Scotland." Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 77, no. 3 (1986): 241–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0263593300010877.

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ABSTRACTThe textural properties of many sediments provide a good indication of their provenance, but surprisingly little information is available on the transitional stages between the breakdown of a rock and the incorporation of the material into a fluvial sediment. These transitional stages are important as certain fractions (particularly the finer ones) may be selectively removed. Regoliths developed on steep slopes represent an early stage in the debris cascade and they are here examined in detail to assess the role of parent lithology on the textural properties of the regolith. There are substantial variations between lithologies, although the majority of regoliths are dominated by coarser fractions and are poorly sorted. Most particle size distributions show some degree of fit to both log-normal probability distributions and Rosin distributions. Differences from these can be ascribed to the processes operating on steep slopes, particularly the influx of sand- and silt-sized material by colluvial processes and the removal of clay-sized material by leaching. The regoliths form a distinct facies type which may be recognisable in the geological record.

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11

Lu, Zhang, and Lv Jianguo. "Shear Properties of Lunar Regolith Simulants." Procedia Engineering 73 (2014): 178–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.06.186.

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12

Piatek, Jennifer L., Bruce W. Hapke, Robert M. Nelson, William D. Smythe, and Amy Snyder Hale. "Scattering properties of planetary regolith analogs." Icarus 171, no. 2 (October 2004): 531–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2004.05.019.

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13

Anan’ev, Pavel, Anna Plotnikova, Alexandr Timofeev, Roman Mesсheryakov, and Konstantin Belyakov. "Problems of robotic systems testing for moving on space objects." Robotics and Technical Cybernetics 9, no. 3 (September 30, 2021): 180–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.31776/rtcj.9303.

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The article discusses the issues of providing full-scale testing of machines and spacecraft. The authors consider the surface of a cosmic body and propose the creation of an analogue of the regolith of the Moon and Mars. It is noted that it is necessary to observe not only the physicochemical and granulometric composition of the analogue, but also its electromagnetic charge, which will allow testing robotic systems more fully. Conclusions and description of the process of regolith creation and its properties are given. Key words Robotic system, space, regolith, electromagnetic properties, physical modeling.

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14

Li, Yuxi, Bin Zhou, Shaoxiang Shen, Wei Lu, Chuanjun Tang, Shidong Li, Yan Su, Shun Dai, and Guangyou Fang. "The Lunar Regolith Structure and Electromagnetic Properties of Chang’E-5 Landing Site." Remote Sensing 14, no. 18 (September 11, 2022): 4539. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs14184539.

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On 1 December 2020, China’s Chang’E-5 (CE-5) probe successfully landed in the northeastern Oceanus Procellarum. This work mainly presents the results of Lunar Regolith Penetrating Radar (LRPR) equipped on the CE-5 Lander. The lunar regolith structure of the landing site from the surface to 3-m depth is unveiled by LRPR, which found that abundant rock fragments are distributed in uniform lunar regolith. The imaging result proved that the drilling and sampling process was prevented by big rocks at about 100 cm depth. On the basis of the response of lunar soil to electromagnetic (EM) wave, the EM properties of the landing site estimate that the relative dielectric constant and the loss tangent are 2.520 ± 0.186 and 0.0133 ± 0.0020, respectively.

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Song, Hanjie, Chao Li, Jinhai Zhang, Xing Wu, Yang Liu, and Yongliao Zou. "Rock Location and Property Analysis of Lunar Regolith at Chang’E-4 Landing Site Based on Local Correlation and Semblance Analysis." Remote Sensing 13, no. 1 (December 24, 2020): 48. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13010048.

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The Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) onboard the Yutu-2 rover from China’s Chang’E-4 (CE-4) mission is used to probe the subsurface structure and the near-surface stratigraphic structure of the lunar regolith on the farside of the Moon. Structural analysis of regolith could provide abundant information on the formation and evolution of the Moon, in which the rock location and property analysis are the key procedures during the interpretation of LPR data. The subsurface velocity of electromagnetic waves is a vital parameter for stratigraphic division, rock location estimates, and calculating the rock properties in the interpretation of LPR data. In this paper, we propose a procedure that combines the regolith rock extraction technique based on local correlation between the two sets of LPR high-frequency channel data and the common offset semblance analysis to determine the velocity from LPR diffraction hyperbola. We consider the heterogeneity of the regolith and derive the relative permittivity distribution based on the rock extraction and semblance analysis. The numerical simulation results show that the procedure is able to obtain the high-precision position and properties of the rock. Furthermore, we apply this procedure to CE-4 LPR data and obtain preferable estimations of the rock locations and the properties of the lunar subsurface regolith.

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Windisch, Lisa, Stefan Linke, Magnus Jütte, Julian Baasch, Arno Kwade, Enrico Stoll, and Carsten Schilde. "Geotechnical and Shear Behavior of Novel Lunar Regolith Simulants TUBS-M, TUBS-T, and TUBS-I." Materials 15, no. 23 (December 1, 2022): 8561. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma15238561.

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The return to the Moon is an important short-term goal of NASA and other international space agencies. To minimize mission risks, technologies, such as rovers or regolith processing systems, must be developed and tested on Earth using lunar regolith simulants that closely resemble the properties of real lunar soil. So far, no singular lunar simulant can cover the multitude of use cases that lunar regolith involves, and most available materials are poorly characterized. To overcome this major gap, a unique modular system for flexible adaptable novel lunar regolith simulants was developed and chemically characterized in earlier works. To supplement this, the present study provides comprehensive investigations regarding geotechnical properties of the three base regolith simulant systems: TUBS-M, TUBS-T, and TUBS-I. To evaluate the engineering and flow properties of these heterogeneous materials under various conditions, shear tests, particle size analyses, scanning electron microscope observations, and density investigations were conducted. It was shown that small grains <25 µm (lunar dust) are highly compressive and cohesive even at low external stress. They are particularly important as a large amount of fine dust is present in lunar regolith and simulants (x50 = 76.7 to 96.0 µm). Further, ring shear and densification tests revealed correlations with damage mechanisms caused by local stress peaks for grains in the mm range. In addition, an explanation for the occurrence of considerable differences in the literature-based data for particle sizes was established by comparing various measurement procedures. The present study shows detailed geotechnical investigations of novel lunar regolith simulants, which can be used for the development of equipment for future lunar exploration missions and in situ resource utilization under realistic conditions. The results also provide evidence about possible correlations and causes of known soil-induced mission risks that so far have mostly been described phenomenologically.

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Warell, J. "Recent Advances in Ground-Based Observation of Mercury." Highlights of Astronomy 13 (2005): 49–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1539299600015045.

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AbstractThe last decade has seen an efficient use of ground-based telescopes for remote-sensing studies of Mercury’s surface at optical, infrared and microwave wavelengths. This has resulted in a substantially improved knowledge of its regolith composition, material and light scattering properties and structures on the poorly known hemisphere. This paper summarizes recent observations and results on the regolith properties of Mercury.

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Lin, Honglei, Yazhou Yang, Yangting Lin, Yang Liu, Yong Wei, Shuai Li, Sen Hu, et al. "Photometric properties of lunar regolith revealed by the Yutu-2 rover." Astronomy & Astrophysics 638 (June 2020): A35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202037859.

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Context. The surface composition of the Moon has mainly determined based on the visible and near-infrared spectra achieved from orbits and/or landing sites, and the spectroscopic analysis is based on photometric properties of the topmost lunar regolith. However, the lack of a ground truth for the photometric parameters of the undisturbed lunar surface has limited accurate applications of spectral observations. Aims. Here we report the photometric properties of the small-scale (i.e., centimeter level) undisturbed lunar regolith around the Chang’E-4 landing site, determined from a series of photometric experiments conducted by the rover Yutu-2. Methods. The simplified Hapke model was used to derive the photometric properties. The micro-topographic effect on the spectral measurements was corrected for the first time in the in situ photometric investigations on the Moon, which improves the accuracy of the derived photometric parameters. Results. The single-scattering albedo w and two parameters (b, c) of the Henyey-Greenstein phase function were derived, and they show a wavelength dependence. The regolith at the Chang’E-4 landing site exhibits strong forward scattering according to the retrieved c values, and the higher asymmetry parameter indicates that the regolith here is more strongly forward scattering than the Apollo lunar soil samples. The derived photometric parameters can serve as ground truth and can be used in the radiative transfer modeling analysis of the orbital remote-sensing data.

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Harris, Franklin, John Dobbs, David Atkins, James A. Ippolito, and Jane E. Stewart. "Soil fertility interactions with Sinorhizobium-legume symbiosis in a simulated Martian regolith; effects on nitrogen content and plant health." PLOS ONE 16, no. 9 (September 29, 2021): e0257053. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257053.

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Due to increasing population growth and declining arable land on Earth, astroagriculture will be vital to terraform Martian regolith for settlement. Nodulating plants and their N-fixing symbionts may play a role in increasing Martian soil fertility. On Earth, clover (Melilotus officinalis) forms a symbiotic relationship with the N-fixing bacteria Sinorhizobium meliloti; clover has been previously grown in simulated regolith yet without bacterial inoculation. In this study, we inoculated clover with S. meliloti grown in potting soil and regolith to test the hypothesis that plants grown in regolith can form the same symbiotic associations as in soils and to determine if greater plant biomass occurs in the presence of S. meliloti regardless of growth media. We also examined soil NH4 concentrations to evaluate soil augmentation properties of nodulating plants and symbionts. Greater biomass occurred in inoculated compared to uninoculated groups; the inoculated average biomass in potting mix and regolith (2.23 and 0.29 g, respectively) was greater than the uninoculated group (0.11 and 0.01 g, respectively). However, no significant differences existed in NH4 composition between potting mix and regolith simulant. Linear regression analysis results showed that: i) symbiotic plant-bacteria relationships differed between regolith and potting mix, with plant biomass positively correlated to regolith-bacteria interactions; and, ii) NH4 production was limited to plant uptake yet the relationships in regolith and potting mix were similar. It is promising that plant-legume symbiosis is a possibility for Martian soil colonization.

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Fateri, Miranda, Reinhard Sottong, Matthias Kolbe, Julie Gamer, Matthias Sperl, and Aidan Cowley. "Thermal properties of processed lunar regolith simulant." International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology 16, no. 6 (May 14, 2019): 2419–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ijac.13267.

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Ding, Chunyu, Yan Su, Zhonghan Lei, Zongyu Zhang, Mi Song, Yuanzhou Liu, Ruigang Wang, Qingquan Li, Chunlai Li, and Shaopeng Huang. "Electromagnetic Signal Attenuation Characteristics in the Lunar Regolith Observed by the Lunar Regolith Penetrating Radar (LRPR) Onboard the Chang’E-5 Lander." Remote Sensing 14, no. 20 (October 17, 2022): 5189. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs14205189.

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The Chinese Chang’E-5 probe landed in the Mons Rümker of Oceanus Procellarum on the near side of the Moon. The lunar regolith penetrating radar (LRPR) carried by the Chang’E-5 probe allows for the determination of in situ lunar regolith dielectric properties, which are probably related to the age and chemical composition of the regolith. In this paper, we analyze the Chang’E-5 LRPR data with the frequency shift method to estimate the loss tangent of the lunar regolith within a depth of ∼2.8 m. The loss tangent of the Chang’E-5 landing site is constrained to be 0.0148 ± 0.0016, which is substantially higher than that of the typical lunar regolith. The high loss tangent is found to be characteristic of the young basalt age (∼2.0 Ga) and high TiO2+FeO content (28.21 ± 1.57%) of the Chang’E-5 landing site. Integrated analysis of results from Chang’E-3, Chang’E-4, and Chang’E-5 show that the younger is the geologic age of the mare unit, the greater is the loss tangent of the lunar regolith, and the weaker is the radar electromagnetic signal penetrating ability.

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Li, Han, Wei Zhao, Xinhui Wu, Hong Tang, Qiushi Li, Jing Tan, and Gong Wang. "3D Printing and Solvent Dissolution Recycling of Polylactide–Lunar Regolith Composites by Material Extrusion Approach." Polymers 12, no. 8 (July 31, 2020): 1724. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12081724.

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The in situ resource utilization of lunar regolith is of great significance for the development of planetary materials science and space manufacturing. The material extrusion deposition approach provides an advanced method for fabricating polylactide/lunar regolith simulant (PLA/CLRS-1) components. This work aims to fabricate 3D printed PLA–lunar regolith simulant (5 and 10 wt.%) components using the material extrusion 3D printing approach, and realize their solvent dissolution recycling process. The influence of the lunar regolith simulant on the mechanical and thermal properties of the 3D printed PLA/CLRS-1 composites is systematically studied. The microstructure of 3D printed PLA/CLRS-1 parts was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray computed tomography (XCT) analysis. The results showed that the lunar regolith simulant can be fabricated and combined with a PLA matrix utilizing a 3D printing process, only slightly influencing the mechanical performance of printed specimens. Moreover, the crystallization process of PLA is obviously accelerated by the addition of CLRS-1 because of heterogeneous nucleation. Additionally, by using gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) characterization, it is found that the 3D printing and recycling processes have a negligible influence on the chemical structure and molecular weight of the PLA/CLRS-1 composites. As a breakthrough, we successfully utilize the lunar regolith simulant to print components with satisfactory mechanical properties and confirm the feasibility of recycling and reusing 3D printed PLA/CLRS-1 components via the solvent dissolution recycling approach.

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Zbik, Marek S., Yen-Fang Song, Chun-Chieh Wang, and Ray L. Frost. "Discovery of Discrete Structured Bubbles within Lunar Regolith Impact Glasses." ISRN Astronomy and Astrophysics 2012 (January 26, 2012): 1–3. http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2012/506187.

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The unusual morphology and internal structure of bubbles within lunar regolith impact glasses have been studied using traditional scanning electron microscopy and the novel technique transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM), with 3D tomography reconstruction. Here, we show the previously unknown phenomenon of building a highly porous cellular structure within bubbles in glassy particles of the dust fraction of lunar regolith. Vesicles within studied lunar glasses are filled in with submicron-sized particles as shown in the presented micrograph. These particles consist of glass nano in size elements. What is shown in the TXM tomography reconstruction anaglyph demonstrates cellular-like, 3D structure where oblique probably glassy fine particles down to 100 nm in diameter build chains of sophisticated network. It also may be suggested that submicron and nano-sized grains present in lunar regolith are the result of particle liberation from broken glassy vesicles. This liberation takes place when regolith is exposed to constant impact pulverisation. Liberated particles are permanently enriching lunar soil in the finest soil constituent. This constituent presence in lunar regolith may be responsible for the unusual behaviour of lunar material. This unusual constituent of lunar regolith and its properties have to be better understood before our permanent lunar exploration begins.

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Kar, Amritaksha, and Asoke K. Sen. "Laboratory simulation of light scattering from regolith analogue: Effect of porosity and particle size." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 15, S350 (April 2019): 372–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921320000496.

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AbstractThe surfaces of most of the atmosphereless solar system bodies are referred to as regolith or layers of usually loosely connected fragmentary debris, produced by meteorite impacts. Measurement of light scattered from such surfaces provide information about the composition and structure of the surface. In the present work, the effect of porosity and particle size, on reflectance is studied for regolith like samples. For modelling the experimental data Hapke 2008 is used and found to be in good agreement with laboratory data. From the present study, it can be concluded that the physical properties of a regolith, such as porosity, particle size etc are effectively represented by albedo.

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Kost, Philipp-Marius, Stefan Linke, Bastian Gundlach, Anthony Lethuillier, Julian Baasch, Enrico Stoll, and Jürgen Blum. "Thermal properties of lunar regolith simulant melting specimen." Acta Astronautica 187 (October 2021): 429–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.06.037.

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Trotter, Craig M. "Weathering and regolith properties at an earthflow site." Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology 26, no. 3 (August 1993): 163–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/gsl.qjegh.1993.026.003.02.

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Suescun-Florez, Eduardo, Stanislav Roslyakov, Magued Iskander, and Mohammed Baamer. "Geotechnical Properties of BP-1 Lunar Regolith Simulant." Journal of Aerospace Engineering 28, no. 5 (September 2015): 04014124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)as.1943-5525.0000462.

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Alshibli, Khalid A., and Alsidqi Hasan. "Strength Properties of JSC-1A Lunar Regolith Simulant." Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 135, no. 5 (May 2009): 673–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)gt.1943-5606.0000068.

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Happel, John A. "Indigenous Materials for Lunar Construction." Applied Mechanics Reviews 46, no. 6 (June 1, 1993): 313–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.3120360.

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An important step in the exploration and colonization of the solar system is to build a permanently inhabited base on the Moon. The lunar environment is stark and hostile to unprotected humans. Structures are needed that protect the inhabitants from vacuum, radiation, extreme temperatures, dust, and meteoroids. Transporting the necessary construction materials from Earth is extremely expensive. Fortunately, lunar structures can be built utilizing indigenous materials. The locally available materials include lunar regolith, cast regolith, glass and glass composites, metals and concrete. Their mechanical properties are summarized and their suitability for lunar construction is evaluated. The most promising materials are cast regolith and lunar glass. Several lunar bases concepts utilizing indigenous materials are described and evaluated. Precast modules and large cast in place structures can be fabricated from lunar concrete. Large cylindrical modules, curved and flat panels and arches cast from lunar regolith are also feasible. A tied arch system is considered very promising because of its structural efficiency.

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Warell, J., and S. S. Limaye. "Properties of the Hermean regolith: I. Global regolith albedo variation at scale from multicolor CCD imaging." Planetary and Space Science 49, no. 14-15 (December 2001): 1531–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0032-0633(01)00091-5.

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Thuillet, Florian, Patrick Michel, Clara Maurel, Ronald-Louis Ballouz, Yun Zhang, Derek C. Richardson, Jens Biele, Eri Tatsumi, and Seiji Sugita. "Numerical modeling of lander interaction with a low-gravity asteroid regolith surface." Astronomy & Astrophysics 615 (July 2018): A41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201832779.

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Context. Landing on the surface of small bodies is particularly challenging, as the physical properties of the surface material are not well known and the mechanical response of this material in a low-gravity environment is not well understood. Aims. In order to improve our understanding of low-speed impact processes on granular media and their outcome in low-gravity environments, we consider the landing of the package MASCOT, to be released by the JAXA asteroid sample return mission Hayabusa2 on (162173) Ryugu in October 2018. Beyond addressing the theoretical aspects of the mechanical response of granular media in low gravity, this study also supports both engineering and scientific teams of Hayabusa2 in the search for the lander and in the determination of Ryugu’s surface properties. Methods. A campaign of hundreds of numerical simulations using the soft-sphere discrete element method implemented in the N-body code pkdgrav were performed to study the interaction between the lander and the low-gravity surface of the asteroid made of a granular medium representing the regolith. Assuming a broad range of regolith properties, and the lander’s trajectory and motion, we analyzed the outcomes of the landing (distance traveled by the lander, penetration depth, and shape of the traces left in the regolith surface) to determine the influence of the many parameters defining the properties of MASCOT and of the grains, and the ingoing motion of the lander. Results. We identify well-marked trends for the fate of the lander and the traces left in the granular material. Distances traveled by the lander are greater and penetrations are shallower for gravel-like media than for less frictional material. A similar trend is found for grazing impacts as opposed to vertical ones. Different regolith properties also generate different traces on the ground after the impact.

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Kaczmarzyk, Marcin, Marcin Gawronski, and Grzegorz Piatkowski. "Application of Finite Difference Method for determining lunar regolith diurnal temperature distribution." E3S Web of Conferences 49 (2018): 00052. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184900052.

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This study was performed in order to verify viability of using finite difference method and proposed simple astrometrical model for modelling heat transfer in lunar regolith. The concept was examined by developing FD model of heat flow for upper 0,9 m of lunar regolith, and comparing obtained results with in situ measurements provided by Apollo 15 and 17 heat flow experiments. The model was based on FDM approximation of Fourier’s law for one dimensional transient heat flow. Both constant and temperature-dependent thermophysical properties of lunar regolith were obtained from in situ measurements. Thermal boundary conditions were assumed on in situ measurements and on remote sensing based analytical model. In order to approximate Sun's position at lunar sky, simple analytical astrometric model of lunar rotation was developed. Matlab 2012a was used to conduct the calculations. Stable solutions were obtained for latitudes between 0 and 80°. Satisfactory agreement between Apollo 15 and 17 in situ measurements and FDM modelling was observed. A conclusion was reached, that both FDM and proposed astrometrical model are to be successfully applied for modelling heat transfer in lunar regolith.

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Tang, Junyue, Tian Yang, Xiren Chen, Zhiheng Zhang, Ye Tian, Weiwei Zhang, and Shengyuan Jiang. "Mechanical Characteristics of Lunar Regolith Drilling and Coring and Its Crawling Phenomenon: Analysis and Validation." Aerospace 9, no. 11 (November 12, 2022): 709. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9110709.

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The collection of lunar regolith with complete stratigraphic information is the key to analyzing the evolution and composition of the moon. To keep each sample’s stratification for further analysis, a sampling method called flexible-tube coring has been adopted for Chinses lunar explorations. Given the uncertain physical properties of lunar regolith, drilling force and core lift force should be adjusted immediately in piercing process. Otherwise, only a small amount of core could be sampled, and overload drilling faults could occur correspondingly. Due to the fact that the cored regolith is inevitably connected to the flexible tube, coring characteristics may have a great influence on both lifting force and sampling quantity. To comprehend the regolith coring characteristics, a flexible-tube coring motion mechanics model was established and verified to acquire the lifting force results accurately. Herein, the judgment conditions for the flexible tube crawling phenomenon are proposed. Finally, the accuracy of the model is verified by comparing it with the Chang’e V telemetry data. This article provides theoretical support for the design and regulation improvement of Chang’e VI drilling and coring in the future.

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Schaller, Mirjam, Igor Dal Bo, Todd A. Ehlers, Anja Klotzsche, Reinhard Drews, Juan Pablo Fuentes Espoz, and Jan van der Kruk. "Comparison of regolith physical and chemical characteristics with geophysical data along a climate and ecological gradient, Chilean Coastal Cordillera (26 to 38° S)." SOIL 6, no. 2 (December 16, 2020): 629–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-629-2020.

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Abstract. We combine geophysical observations from ground-penetrating radar (GPR) with regolith physical and chemical properties from pedons excavated in four study areas spanning 1300 km of the climate and ecological gradient in the Chilean Coastal Cordillera. Our aims are the following: (1) to relate GPR observations to depth-varying regolith physical and weathering-related chemical properties in adjacent pedons and (2) to evaluate the lateral extent to which these properties can be extrapolated along a hillslope using GPR observations. Physical observations considered include regolith bulk density and grain size distribution, whereas chemical observations are based on major and trace element analysis. Results indicate that visually determined pedolith thickness and the transition from the B to C horizons generally correlate with maximums in the 500 and 1000 MHz GPR envelope profiles. To a lesser degree, these maximums in the GPR envelope profiles agree with maximums in weathering-related indices such as the chemical index of alteration (CIA) and the chemical index of mass transfer (τ) for Na. Finally, we find that upscaling from the pedon to hillslope scale is possible with geophysical methods for certain pedon properties. Taken together, these findings suggest that the GPR profiles down hillslopes can be used to infer lateral thickness variations in pedolith horizons in different ecologic and climate settings, and to some degree the physical and chemical variations with depth.

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Ballouz, R.-L., K. J. Walsh, P. Sánchez, K. A. Holsapple, P. Michel, D. J. Scheeres, Y. Zhang, et al. "Modified granular impact force laws for the OSIRIS-REx touchdown on the surface of asteroid (101955) Bennu." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 507, no. 4 (August 23, 2021): 5087–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab2365.

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ABSTRACT The OSIRIS-REx mission collected a sample from the surface of the asteroid (101955) Bennu in 2020 October. Here, we study the impact of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go Sampling Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) interacting with the surface of an asteroid in the framework of granular physics. Traditional approaches to estimating the penetration depth of a projectile into a granular medium include force laws and scaling relationships formulated from laboratory experiments in terrestrial-gravity conditions. However, it is unclear that these formulations extend to the OSIRIS-REx scenario of a 1300-kg spacecraft interacting with regolith in a microgravity environment. We studied the TAGSAM interaction with Bennu through numerical simulations using two collisional codes, pkdgrav and gdc-i. We validated their accuracy by reproducing the results of laboratory impact experiments in terrestrial gravity. We then performed TAGSAM penetration simulations varying the following geotechnical properties of the regolith: packing fraction (P), bulk density, inter-particle cohesion (σc), and angle of friction (ϕ). We find that the outcome of a spacecraft-regolith impact has a non-linear dependence on packing fraction. Closely packed regolith (P ≳ 0.6) can effectively resist the penetration of TAGSAM if ϕ ≳ 28° and/or σc ≳ 50 Pa. For loosely packed regolith (P ≲ 0.5), the penetration depth is governed by a drag force that scales with impact velocity to the 4/3 power, consistent with energy conservation. We discuss the importance of low-speed impact studies for predicting and interpreting spacecraft–surface interactions. We show that these low-energy events also provide a framework for interpreting the burial depths of large boulders in asteroidal regolith.

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Siegler, Matthew, Oded Aharonson, Elizabeth Carey, Mathieu Choukroun, Troy Hudson, Norbert Schorghofer, and Steven Xu. "Measurements of thermal properties of icy Mars regolith analogs." Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 117, E3 (March 2012): n/a. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011je003938.

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Simonelli, Damon P., Joseph Veverka, and Alfred S. McEwen. "Io: Galileo evidence for major variations in regolith properties." Geophysical Research Letters 24, no. 20 (October 15, 1997): 2475–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/97gl02506.

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38

Robens, E., A. Bischoff, A. Schreiber, A. Dąbrowski, and K. K. Unger. "Investigation of surface properties of lunar regolith: Part I." Applied Surface Science 253, no. 13 (April 2007): 5709–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2006.12.098.

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Dąbrowski, A., E. Mendyk, E. Robens, K. Skrzypiec, J. Goworek, Mariola Iwan, and Zofia Rzączyńska. "Investigation of surface properties of lunar regolith part III." Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry 94, no. 3 (December 2008): 633–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10973-008-9348-9.

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Robens, E., A. Bischoff, A. Schreiber, and K. K. Unger. "Investigation of surface properties of lunar regolith part III." Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry 94, no. 3 (December 2008): 627–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10973-008-9352-0.

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Cloutis, Edward A., and Michael J. Gaffey. "Lunar Regolith Analogues: Spectral Reflectance Properties of Compositional Variations." Icarus 102, no. 2 (April 1993): 203–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/icar.1993.1044.

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Tanbakouei, Safoura, Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez, Jordi Sort, Patrick Michel, Jürgen Blum, Tomoki Nakamura, and Iwan Williams. "Mechanical properties of particles from the surface of asteroid 25143 Itokawa." Astronomy & Astrophysics 629 (September 2019): A119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201935380.

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Aims. Asteroids have been exposed to impacts since their formation, and as a consequence their surfaces are covered by small particles, pebbles, and boulders. The Japanese JAXA/ISAS Hayabusa mission collected micron-sized particles from the regolith of asteroid 25143 Itokawa. The study in terrestrial laboratories of these particles provides a scientific opportunity as their physical properties can be compared with those characteristic of chondritic meteorites that are often considered proxies of the building materials of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). Methods. Here we present the results from a study of the mechanical properties of three of these particles using a precise technique called nanoindentation. The derived results are compared with those obtained via a methodology similar to that used for the Chelyabinsk meteorite. Results. The reduced Young’s modulus values obtained for the Itokawa samples are higher than those measured for the Chelyabinsk chondrite, so these specific particles of asteroid regolith are more compacted than the minerals forming the particular LL chondrite associated with PHAs. This might be a natural consequence of particles surviving long exposure times on the surface of a (near-Earth asteroid) NEA. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission plans to excavate a crater in the surface of the (65803) Didymos satellite. Our results suggest that excavating a crater with a kinetic impactor in an area of significant fine-grained regolith will increase the momentum transfer. As this will facilitate the release of particles carrying target mass in the opposite direction to the movement of the projectile, there is no need to grind up the target during the mechanical excavation phase.

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Bednarz, Stanisław, Mirosław Rzyczniak, Andrzej Gonet, and Karol Seweryn. "Research of Formed Lunar Regholit Analog AGK-2010 / Badania wytworzonego analogu gruntu księżycowego AGK-2010." Archives of Mining Sciences 58, no. 2 (June 1, 2013): 551–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/amsc-2013-0037.

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The results investigations of a soil having similar properties as lunar regolith performed at the Department of Drilling and Geoengineering, Faculty of Drilling, Oil and Gas, AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków are presented in this paper. The research was carried out jointly with the Space Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. The objective of the cooperation was to minimize the cost of tests of penetrator KRET, which will be used on the surface of the Moon. The American lunar regolith (e.g. CHENOBI) was used as reference soil. The most important properties were presented graphically in the form of figures and tables: grain size distribution, selected physical properties (bulk density, colour), selected mechanical parameters (shear strength, inner friction strength, cohesion). As a result the first Polish lunar soil analog AGK-2010 was produced.

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Qian, Yuqi, Long Xiao, Shen Yin, Ming Zhang, Siyuan Zhao, Yong Pang, Jiang Wang, Guoxin Wang, and James W. Head. "The regolith properties of the Chang'e-5 landing region and the ground drilling experiments using lunar regolith simulants." Icarus 337 (February 2020): 113508. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113508.

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Schröder, S. E., S. Mottola, H. U. Keller, C. A. Raymond, and C. T. Russell. "Resolved photometry of Vesta reveals physical properties of crater regolith." Planetary and Space Science 85 (September 2013): 198–213. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2013.06.009.

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Pitcher, Craig, Norbert Kömle, Otto Leibniz, Odalys Morales-Calderon, Yang Gao, and Lutz Richter. "Investigation of the properties of icy lunar polar regolith simulants." Advances in Space Research 57, no. 5 (March 2016): 1197–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2015.12.030.

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Akanbi, Olanrewaju Akinfemiwa, and Moshood ‘Niyi Tijani. "Sustainability and Conceptual Groundwater Hydraulic Models of Basement Aquifers." Materials and Geoenvironment 66, no. 2 (June 1, 2019): 87–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/rmzmag-2019-0016.

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AbstractGroundwater flow of the basement terrains of the Ibarapa region was studied by carrying out pumping test and measurement of borehole inventory. The view was to identify the associated aquifer systems from the time-drawdown curves, quantify the estimable hydraulic properties and develop hypothetical models for the understanding of the groundwater flow in the area underlain by diverse crystalline bedrocks. Three aquifer types were identified namely, dual, leaky and regolith. The yield of groundwater in dual and leaky aquifers that dominated terrains underlain by amphibolite and gneisses was sustainable, but the discharge of regolith aquifers mainly associated with migmatite and granite terrains declined at late pumping stage. The transmissivities of the dual and leaky aquifers were between 2.02 and 11.65 m2/day, while those of regolith aquifers were mostly less than 1.00 m2/day. The average aquifer transmissivities in m2/day by bedrocks were: 6.85, 2.57, 0.76 and 1.72, correspondingly. The inter-relationships between transmissivities and groundwater discharge showed diverse aquifer representations, from sustainable high-yielding to unsustainable low-yielding types. Conscientious effort is, therefore, required for well construction in the area.

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Lai, Jialong, Feifei Cui, Yi Xu, Chaofei Liu, and Ling Zhang. "Dielectric Properties of Lunar Materials at the Chang’e-4 Landing Site." Remote Sensing 13, no. 20 (October 11, 2021): 4056. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13204056.

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On January 3rd 2019, the Chang’e-4 mission successfully landed in the Von Kármán Crater inside the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin and achieved the first soft landing on the farside of the Moon. Lunar penetrating radar (LPR) equipped on the rover measured the shallow subsurface structure along the motion path for more than 700 m. LPR data could be used to obtain the dielectric properties of the materials beneath the exploration area, providing important clues as to the composition and source of the materials. Although the properties of the upper fine-grained regolith have been studied using various methods, the underlying coarse-grained materials still lack investigation. Therefore, this paper intends to estimate the loss tangent of the coarse-grained materials at depth ranges of ~12 and ~28 m. Stochastic media models with different rock distributions for the LPR finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation are built to evaluate the feasibility of the estimation method. Our results show that the average loss tangent value of coarse-grained materials is 0.0104±0.0027, and the abundance of FeOT+TiO2 is 20.08 wt.%, which is much higher than the overlying fine-grained regolith, indicating different sources.

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Li, Martin Yan Hei, and Mei-Fu Zhou. "The role of clay minerals in formation of the regolith-hosted heavy rare earth element deposits." American Mineralogist 105, no. 1 (January 1, 2020): 92–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.2138/am-2020-7061.

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Abstract Rare earth elements (REEs) have become increasingly important to our modern society due to their strategical significance and numerous high technological applications. Regolith-hosted heavy rare earth element (HREE) deposits in South China are currently the main source of the HREEs, but the ore-forming processes are poorly understood. In these deposits, the REEs are postulated to accumulate in regolith through adsorption on clay minerals. In the Zudong deposit, the world's largest regolith-hosted HREE deposit, clay minerals are dominated by short, stubby, nanometer-scale halloysite tubes (either 10 or 7 Å) and microcrystalline kaolinite in the saprolite and lower pedolith and micrometer-sized vermicular kaolinite in the humic layer and upper pedolith. A critical transformation of the clay minerals in the upper pedolith is coalescence and unrolling of halloysite to form vermicular kaolinite. Microcrystalline kaolinite also transformed to large, well-crystalline vermicular kaolinite. This transformation could result in significant changes in different physicochemical properties of the clay assemblages. Halloysite-abundant clay assemblages in the deep regolith have specific surface area and porosity significantly higher than the kaolinite-dominant clay assemblages in the shallow soils. The crystallinity of clay minerals also increased, exemplified by decrease in Fe contents of the kaolinite group minerals (from ~1.2 wt% in the lower saprolite to ~0.35 wt% in the upper pedolith), thereby indicative of less availability of various types of adsorption sites. Hence, halloysite-abundant clay minerals of high adsorption capacity in deep regolith could efficiently retain the REEs released from weathering of the parent granite. Reduction in adsorption capacity during the clay transformation in shallow depth partially leads to REE desorption, and the released REEs would be subsequently transported to and adsorbed at deeper part of the soil profile. Hence, the clay-adsorbed REE concentration in the lower pedolith and saprolite (~2500 ppm on average) is much higher than the uppermost soils (~400 ppm on average). Therefore, weathering environments that favor the release of the REEs in the shallow soils but preservation of halloysite in the deep regolith can continuously adsorb REEs in the clay minerals to form economically valuable deposits.

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Emerson, Don, James Macnae, and Daniel Sattel. "Physical properties of the regolith in the Lawlers area, Western Australia." Exploration Geophysics 31, no. 1-2 (March 2000): 229–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/eg00229.

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Journal articles on the topic 'Regolith properties'

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