juliensimon/lunar-sample-geochemistry

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Lunar Sample Geochemistry (Astromat Synthesis)"
language:
- en
description: "Geochemical analyses of 58,289 lunar samples from Apollo, Luna, and Chang'e 5 missions. Major oxides and trace elements from 980 publications."
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
- tabular-regression
tags:
- space
- moon
- lunar
- geochemistry
- apollo
- astromat
- petrology
- planetary-science
- open-data
- tabular-data
- parquet
size_categories:
- 10K<n<100K
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/lunar_geochemistry.parquet
default: true
---

# Lunar Sample Geochemistry (Astromat Synthesis)

<div align="center">
<img src="banner.jpg" alt="The Moon seen from Apollo 8, showing craters and surface detail" width="400">
<p><em>Credit: NASA/Apollo 8</em></p>
</div>

*Part of the [Planetary Science Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/planetary-science-datasets-69c2d4683bd6a66c34fb4af2) collection on Hugging Face.*

A comprehensive compilation of **58,289** geochemical analyses from **14,379** unique lunar samples collected by the Apollo, Luna, and Chang'e 5 missions. Covers major oxide compositions, trace element abundances, and rare earth elements from **980** published studies, compiled by the Astromat/EarthChem project.

## Dataset description

Between 1969 and 2020, six Apollo missions (382 kg), three Soviet Luna missions (326 g), and China's Chang'e 5 mission (1.73 kg) returned samples from the Moon's surface. These samples — basalts, breccias, soils, and crustal rocks — have been analyzed in laboratories worldwide for over 50 years, producing a rich geochemical database that underpins our understanding of the Moon's origin, differentiation, and volcanic history.

This dataset compiles the results of those analyses into a single tabular format. **Major oxides** (SiO2, TiO2, Al2O3, FeO, MgO, CaO, etc.) in weight percent define the bulk composition and are used to classify lunar rock types (high-Ti basalt, low-Ti basalt, KREEP-rich, ferroan anorthosite). **Trace elements** and **rare earth elements** in ppm provide diagnostic signatures for petrogenetic processes: partial melting, fractional crystallization, and impact mixing.

The data was compiled by the Astromat Synthesis project (EarthChem Library) from peer-reviewed publications spanning 1970 to 2025, making it the most comprehensive single source for lunar sample chemistry.

## Sample types

| Type | Analyses |
|------|----------:|
| ROCK>>BRECCIA | 17,455 |
| ROCK>>BASALT | 15,949 |
| SOIL | 12,703 |
| ROCK>>CRUSTAL | 1,713 |
| ROCK>>CORE | 1,179 |
| ROCK>>UNCLASSIFIED | 132 |

## Missions

| Mission | Analyses |
|---------|----------:|
| Other | 58,289 |

## Quick stats

- **58,289** total analyses from **14,379** unique samples
- **980** published references
- **55** columns (metadata + major oxides + trace elements + REEs)

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/lunar-sample-geochemistry", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# TAS-like plot for lunar basalts
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
basalts = df[df["sample_type"].str.contains("BASALT", na=False)]
valid = basalts.dropna(subset=["sio2_wt_pct", "tio2_wt_pct"])
plt.scatter(valid["sio2_wt_pct"], valid["tio2_wt_pct"], alpha=0.3, s=10)
plt.xlabel("SiO2 (wt%)")
plt.ylabel("TiO2 (wt%)")
plt.title("Lunar Basalt Compositions")
plt.show()

# Compare missions
print(df.groupby("mission")[["sio2_wt_pct", "feo_wt_pct", "mgo_wt_pct"]].mean())

# Filter Apollo 15 samples
a15 = df[df["mission"] == "Apollo 15"]
print(f"Apollo 15: {len(a15)} analyses")
```

## Data source

Astromat Synthesis Compilation: Lunar samples v.1 (February 2025).
EarthChem Library, [doi:10.60520/IEDA/113696](https://doi.org/10.60520/IEDA/113696). CC-BY-4.0.

## Related datasets

- [Lunar Craters (Robbins 2019)](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/lunar-craters-robbins) — 2M+ Moon craters
- [Meteorite Database](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/meteorite-database) — Named meteorites with classification
- [Meteorite Landings](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/meteorite-landings) — 45K+ meteorite fall records
- [IAU Planetary Nomenclature](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/planetary-nomenclature) — Named lunar features

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the [dataset page](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/lunar-sample-geochemistry) and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐ to the [space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets) repo.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{lunar_geochemistry,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Lunar Sample Geochemistry (Astromat Synthesis)},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/lunar-sample-geochemistry},
note = {Based on Astromat Synthesis Compilation via EarthChem Library}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)