Evidence for meteoritic sulfur in the lunar regolith

Abundance and isotopic data are presented for a suite of 19 soils from the Apollo 16 mission. It is concluded that the S systematics of the lunar regolith support a model in which S from a number of indigenous rock types is mixed with a time-dependent, extralunar component of probably meteoritic origin. This mixture is processed on the lunar surface by a time-dependent mechanism which removes S-32 enriched S from the moon, enriching the residue in S-34. The loss of S by this mechanism approximately equals the meteoritic input, producing the apparent coincidence between rock abundances and abundances in soils which has led to adoption of simplified mixing models. In reality, at least for the Apollo 16 site, addition of meteoritic S slightly outweighs loss from the moon, resulting in a positive trend.