Exploring links between crater floor mineralogy and layered lunar crust Original Research Article

Floors of similar sized craters, representing material from similar depth horizons, have been studied to explore their suitability as mineralogy indicators at various depths within the lunar crust. Clementine UV–vis multispectral data was used to generate mineral abundance maps of crater floors and surroundings using a modified version of algorithm given by Pieters et al. (2001) [Pieters, C.M., Head, J.W., Gaddis, L., Jolliff, B. and Duke, M. Rock types of the south pole aitken basin and extent of basaltic volcanism, JGR (106) E11, 28001–28022, 2001.]. Substantial processing of the crater floor material due to variety of geological processes is evident in the generated maps, making straight forward interpretations difficult. However, systematic compositional trends in fresh craters on the floors of target craters seem to indicate the feasibility of such an effort.