Effects of soil maturation on grain size-dependence of trapped solar gases

A description is presented of a simple two-part model which relates the retention of solar-wind-implanted noble gases and N in different grain sizes of lunar soils to the maturation level of that soil. It is assumed that concentrations of solar-wind gases are implanted into surfaces of soil grains in inverse proportion to grain diameter and that differences in irradiation probability and surface saturation as a function of grain diameter generally are not a major factor. The model demonstrates that incorporation of a major fraction of this surface-correlated gas into constructional particles such as agglutinates causes much of the gas to become volume-correlated in mature soils. This volume-correlated gas produces a relative enrichment in gas concentrations in coarser grains and a selective enrichment of more retentive gases (e.g., N) over less retentive gases (e.g., He). It is shown that the maturity model plays a major role in determining the complexities of the distribution of solar-wind gases in soils.