Apollo 14 mare basalts - Petrology and geochemistry of clasts from consortium breccia 14321

It is pointed out that polymict lunar breccia 14321 has long been renowned for the relative abundance of mare basalt clasts which it contains. However, few detailed studies of these clasts exist. The most comprehensive studies to date are those of the first 14321 consortium. Although the studies produced important results, a number of questions remain still unanswered. Thus, it is not certain if the clasts studied are representative of the entire clast population. In addition, there is a lack of correlation of petrography and mineral chemistry information with specific, analyzed clasts, and the major elements Mg and Ca were not analyzed. A second 14321 consortium effort has been organized with the objective to address the remaining questions. The present investigation is concerned with the results of a combined petrographic, mineral /chemical, and geochemical study of 11 mare basalt clasts chipped from five separate subsamples of breccia 14321. It is found that the mare basalt suite at the Apollo 14 site comprises a diverse assemblage of petrographic and compositional types which confirm the importance of ancient mare volcanism.