Data for figures in: Modal petrology and mineral chemistry of Apollo 17 Drive Tube Section 73002

The Apollo 17 mission returned samples from the Taurus-Littrow Valley of
the Moon. Key features of the site are a basaltic valley floor partially
enclosed by South Massif and North Massif mountains and the Sculptured
Hills, which consist of feldspar-rich, highland lithologies. A recently
opened soil core sampled an inferred landslide deposit at the base of
South Massif. Study of a suite of polished grain mounts of six size
fractions of <1 mm material from 14 depth intervals of the ~18 cm
soil column shows that all size fractions from the upper 5–6 cm are richer
in agglutinates, an indicator of surface exposure, than the deeper
material, which is among the most agglutinate-poor Apollo 17 regolith
reported. Regolith breccia, crystalline melt breccia, and noritic igneous
rocks are the most abundant fragment types. Mare basalt, glasses, and
agglutinates are minor components throughout. The observations are
consistent with deposition of the highland-dominated material in a
landslide, which did not preserve any previous stratigraphy, followed by
in situ maturation, with only minor additions of mare lithologies from
nearby basaltic regolith, due to the inefficiency of lateral transport on
the Moon.