Elastic properties of Apollo 14 and 15 rocks.

Ultrasonic P- and S-wave velocities of lunar samples 14310,72 and 15418,43 and P-wave velocities of sample 15015,18 were measured at room temperature to 5 kb confining pressure. The velocities of both igneous and breccia samples increased sharply over this pressure range. At low confining pressures, the shape of velocity-pressure curves of rocks is determined by the distribution function of crack aspect ratios. We suggest that analogue studies on terrestrial rocks having a wide assortment of crack parameters may be used to infer the nature of cracks in lunar rocks.