Lunar geology and samples
What Apollo 11 brought back and what it revealed about the Moon. This map covers how the samples were collected and contained, how they were classified, what the crystalline rocks are, how they were dated, and how they are numbered and curated — drawing on the Preliminary Science Report (science) and the Lunar Sample Information Catalogue (curation), with the first-examination results (sample classification, ages, chemistry) corroborated by the Apollo 11 Mission Report (§11), and per-sample detail from the Lunar Sample Compendium.
Concepts
Section titled “Concepts”- Apollo 11 sample inventory — the full 53-sample catalog in one table: number, type, mass, ages, chemistry, and provenance.
- Lunar sample collection and containers — contingency/bulk/documented samples, core tubes, ALSRCs.
- Apollo 11 sampling tools and containers — the hardware inventory: scoop, tongs, core tubes, hammer, rock boxes, GASC/SESC.
- Apollo 11 lunar sample types — the A/B/C/D classification (basalts, breccias, fines).
- High-titanium mare basalt — the crystalline rocks, their chemistry, and ~3.6–3.8 Gyr ages.
- Apollo 11 basalt suites (high-K and low-K) — the two distinct basalt lavas and their ~3.6 vs ~3.8 Gyr ages.
- Minerals first identified in Apollo 11 samples — armalcolite, tranquillityite, and pyroxferroite, new to science.
- Lunar sample numbering and curation — the 10000-series numbering and JSC curation.
- Tranquility Base (Landing Site 2) — the mare site the samples came from.
- Lunar regolith and soil mechanics — the ~5 m debris layer, impact gardening, and the surface’s bearing strength.
- Solar Wind Composition experiment (S‑080) — implanted solar-wind gases in the regolith.
- Lunar field geology (Experiment S-059) — the site as a geologic locality: craters, rocks, fillets, and sample context.
- Apollo 11 surface photography — photography as the primary geologic record of the surface.
- Apollo 11 photographic index — the magazine-and-frame catalog that ties specific images to locations.
- Surface exposure and space weathering (Apollo 11 samples) — cosmic-ray/solar-flare exposure, micrometeorite pits, agglutinates, and soil maturity.
- First-order results of Apollo 11 — the synthesis: volcanic high-Ti basalt, ancient ages, new minerals, a walkable regolith, the Sun on tape, and working surface geophysics.