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Support for the Lunar Cataclysm Hypothesis from Lunar Meteorite Impact Melt Ages
B. A. Cohen,*T. D. Swindle,D. A. Kring
Lunar meteorites represent a more random sampling of
lunar material than the Apollo or Luna collections and, as such, lunarmeteorite impact melt ages are the most important data in nearly30 years with which to reexamine the lunar cataclysm hypothesis.Within
the lunar meteorite breccias MAC 88105, QUE 93069, DaG262, and DaG
400, seven to nine different impact events are representedwith
40Ar-39Ar ages between 2.76 and 3.92 billion
years ago (Ga). The lackof impact melt older than 3.92 Ga supports the
concept of a short,intense period of bombardment in the Earth-moon
system at ~3.9Ga. This was an anomalous spike of impact activity on
the otherwisedeclining impact- frequency curve.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
*
Present address: Department of Geological Sciences, University
of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
bcohen{at}utk.edu
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