Candidate areas for in situ ancient lunar materials

Results of high-speed impact cratering in quartz sand targets are reported. Dissection of the ejecta plumes of the craters revealed that they are relatively thin conical sheets. Further dissection showed the relationship between individual particle trajectories and the ejecta plume. A model of cratering, based on the experiments, was used to explain the inverted stratigraphy previously described in laboratory impact craters and in meteorite craters. Mantling of secondary craters in peripheral parts of the continuous deposits of Tycho Crater and in the downrange parts of certain Tycho secondary crater clusters is accounted for by the model. Model results indicate extensive mixing by secondary cratering when basin ejecta is emplaced. The study reveals certain areas on the lunar uplands that have been relatively uncratered by basin secondaries and unmantled by secondary crater debris surges and that may represent in situ ancient lunar materials.