Lack of chemical fractionation in major and minor elements during agglutinate formation

Rhodes et al. (1975, 1976) and Adams et al. (1975) have reported that the agglutinate fraction of the soils on the lunar surface displays a marked enrichment in Fe, Mg, Ti, K, and La, and a depletion in Ca, Na, Al, and Eu, relative to the bulk soils. The reported investigation is concerned with a testing of the theory of chemical fractionation involving magnetic separation which was developed in connection with these findings. Soils 64421 and 71501 were sieved and the magnetic fractions separated according to the method developed by Adams and McCord (1973). Analyses of agglutinitic glass did not indicate any appreciable chemical fractionation for the major and minor elements accompanying the agglutination process. It was found that most, if not all fractionations reported can be accounted for completely by the magnetic nonagglutinate impurities in the agglutinate fraction. It is, therefore, concluded that there appears to be no reason to make use of any chemical fractionation theory, whose validity remains to be demonstrated.