Mare volcanism in the Taurus-Littrow region

The products of mare volcanism at Taurus-Littrow occur in the form of crystalline basalts and volcanic glass beads. Both categories of samples define a compositionally diverse, but petrogenetically unrelated, suite of magmas derived by partial melting of a heterogenous, differentiated mantle beneath the region of the Apollo 17 landing site. This is a brief review of what is known and what is not known about mare volcanism at this location on the Moon

Abundances of sodium, sulfur, and potassium in lunar volcanic glasses: Evidence for volatile loss during eruption

Six varieties of lunar volcanic glass are known to occur within the Apollo 17 sample collection. Investigations have shown that 25 volatile elements are known to be concentrated on the exterior surfaces of individual volcanic glass spheres. Since bulk analyses of volcanic glass provide an integrated abundance of an element on and with the glass spherules, other methods must be relied on to determine the interior abundance of an element. The interior abundance of an element with a volcanic glass sphere establishes the abundance of that element in the melt at the time of quench. The current study is part of a comprehensive attempt to measure the abundance of three volatile elements (Na, S, and K) within representative spheres of the 25 varieties of lunar volcanic glass currently known to exist at the Apollo landing sites. Comparison of the measured abundances of these elements within the interiors of individual glasses with bulk analyses and crystalline mare basalts will furnish new constraints on the geochemical behavior of volatile elements during lunar mare volcanism

Proceedings of a workshop on Lunar Volcanic Glasses: Scientific and Resource Potential

This workshop on lunar mare volcanism was the first since 1975 to deal with the major scientific advances that have occurred in this general subject, and the first ever to deal specifically with volcanic glasses. Lunar volcanic glasses are increasingly being recognized as the best geochemical and petrologic probes into the lunar mantle. Lunar volcanic glasses, of which 25 compositional varieties are presently known, appear to represent primary magmas that were produced by partial melting of differentiated mantle source regions at depths of perhaps 400 to 500 km. These high-magnesian picritic magmas were erupted onto the lunar surface in fire fountains associated with the release of indigenous lunar volatiles. The cosmic significance of this volatile component, in an otherwise depleted Moon, remains a lingering puzzle. The resource potential, if any, of the surface-correlated volatile sublimates on the volcanic glass spherules had not been systematically addressed prior to this workshop

The effects of interscholastic athletic participation on academic achievement and selected motivational factors for athletic participation by urban youth

The purpose of the study was to examine the academic value of interscholastic athletic participation, to appraise how such participation affected educational aspirations, and to ascertain, within selected motivational factors, why high school students play sports. A non-experimental descriptive research design that included descriptive and inferential statistics was used. Survey methodology that incorporated student records was also included in the design. The variables were not manipulated and no treatment was provided to the participants. Schools were selected by use of cluster random sampling and athletes from four high schools were asked to fill out a seventeen-item Athletes Questionnaire that solicited reasons for participation, the degree of participation, and aspirations for collegiate and professional sports. It appears that a positive relationship exists between interscholastic athletic participation and academic achievement as defined by grade point averages. Students who participated in interscholastic athletics had higher grade point averages than the general student population and overwhelmingly would like to and are planning to attend college. Students are motivated to participate in interscholastic athletics for a variety of reasons. Student-athletes in this study possess both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation at high levels; however, the primary factor for participation was enjoyment, an indicator of intrinsic motivation

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Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Search for Life

NASA\u27s Astrobiology program seeks to determine the origin and distribution of life in the Milky Way galaxy using scientific expertise from many disciplines (e.g., astronomy, biochemistry, geochemistry). This presentation, which provides an overview of the progress that has been made in this effort, was delivered on 23 June 2015 at the Green Mountain Academy for Lifelong Learning in Manchester, VT. With NASA\u27s development of the Space Launch System (SLS), vigorous multi-disciplinary scientific research, and additional spacecraft (e.g., TESS) for finding and analyzing planets orbiting other stars, exciting discoveries will continue

NASA\u27s search for life beyond the Earth

Invited presentation (November 3, 2014 for the 119th Annual Conference of the Science Teachers Association of New York State) provides an overview of NASA\u27s search for worlds orbiting other nearby stars on the Milky Way galaxy

Measurements of geomagnetic declination (1685-1910) using land surveys, LiDAR, and stone walls

Nearly 1200 kilometers of boundaries surveyed in 1685-1910, upon which stone walls were subsequently built, were measured using high-resolution LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in the northeastern United States (New Hampshire and New York). The geomagnetic declinations at the time of the original land surveys of those stone wall-defined boundaries have been determined and compared with (i) current geophysical models (i.e., gufm1, IGRF12; United States Historical Declinations-USHD), and (ii) measured declinations (Bauer, 1902). With the exception of lower declinations (i.e., 1.5° eastward) in 1775-1810, the results of this study are in good agreement with gufm1 and IGRF12 geomagnetic declinations. This study yielded systematically higher declinations (i.e., up to 2.0° westerly) than the USHD values during 1750-1780. These results demonstrate that geomagnetic declination can be determined when durable, human-engineered structures on land (e.g., stone walls; roads) are accompanied by detailed historical documentation and accurate land surveys. An example of using old streets (1699) in Colonial Williamsburg, VA is also discussed. Precisions of the bearings along boundaries in the 17th-19th century land surveys used this study were typically better than ±0.30°

Stone Walls of New York and New England

Stone walls are an enduring testimony of the hard labors and work ethic of subsistence family farms on ~100-acre lots. Those lots had been defined by hardy teams of surveyors who used compasses and chains to define the magnetic directions and lengths of boundaries. Farmers cleared (‘improved’) large sections of their land of trees for the purpose of grazing animals and growing crops. As we venture into the deep woods today, we often encounter these forgotten stonewalls that reveal that others long ago were there. Modern airborne surveys using ‘Light Detection And Ranging’ (LiDAR) not only reveal the vast extent of these stone monuments in New York and New England (total estimated length ~200,000 miles), but also information about the slow drift of the Earth’s magnetic field

40Ar/39Ar ages of lunar impact glasses: Relationships among Ar diffusivity, chemical composition, shape, and size

Lunar impact glasses, which are quenched melts produced during cratering events on the Moon, have the potential to providenot only compositional information about both the local and regional geology of the Moon but also information about the impact flux over time. We present in this paper the results of 73 new 40Ar/39Ar analyses of well-characterized, inclusion-free lunar impact glasses and demonstrate that size, shape, chemical composition, fraction of radiogenic 40Ar retained, and cosmic ray exposure (CRE) ages are important for 40Ar/39Ar investigations of these samples. Specifically, analyses of lunar impact glasses from the Apollo 14, 16, and 17 landing sites indicate that retention of radiogenic 40Ar is a strong function of post-formation thermal history in the lunar regolith, size, and chemical composition. This is because the Ar diffusion coefficient (at a constant temperature) is estimated to decrease by 3–4 orders of magnitude with an increasing fraction of non-bridging oxygens, X(NBO), over the compositional range of most lunar impact glasses with compositions from feldspathic to basaltic. Based on these relationships, lunar impact glasses with compositions and sizes sufficient to have retained 90% of their radiogenic Ar during 750 Ma of cosmic ray exposure at time-integrated temperatures of up to 290 K have been identified and are likely to have yielded reliable 40Ar/39Ar ages of formation. Additionally, 50% of the identified impact glass spheres have formation ages of 6500 Ma, while 75% of the identified lunar impact glass shards and spheres have ages of formation 62000 Ma. Higher thermal stresses in lunar impact glasses quenched from hyperliquidus temperatures are considered the likely cause of poor survival of impact glass spheres, as well as the decreasing frequency of lunar impact glasses in general with increasing age. The observed age-frequency distribution of lunar impact glasses may reflect two processes: (i) diminished preservation due to spontaneous shattering with age; and (ii) preservation of a remnant population of impact glasses from the tail end of the terminal lunar bombardment having 40Ar/39Ar ages up to 3800 Ma. A protocol is described for selecting and analyzing lunar impact glasses