Thorite in an Apollo 12 granite fragment and age determination using the electron microprobe

We present the first quantitative compositional analysis of thorite in a lunar sample. The sample, a granitic assemblage, also contains monazite and yttrobetafite grains, all with concentrations of U, Th, and Pb sufficiently high to determine reliably with the electron microprobe. The assemblage represents the first documented occurrence of these three minerals together and only the second reported occurrence of thorite in a lunar rock. Sample 12023,147-10 is a small, monomict rock fragment recovered from an Apollo 12 regolith sample. It comprises graphic intergrowths of K-feldspar and quartz, and plagioclase and quartz, along with minor or accessory hedenbergite, fayalite, ilmenite, zircon, yttrobetafite, thorite, monazite, and Fe metal. Thorite, ideally ThSiO4, occurs in the assemblage adjacent to quartz and plagioclase, and includes a 12% xenotime ([Y,HREE]PO4) component. From quantitative electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA) of Th, U, and Pb in thorite, assuming that all of the measured Pb is radiogenic, we calculate an age of 3.87 ± 0.03 Ga. Yttrobetafite and monazite, which contain lesser concentrations of U, Th, and Pb than the thorite, yield ages of 3.78 ± 0.06 Ga and 3.9 ± 0.3 Ga, respectively. These dates are consistent with formation of the granitic material around 3.8–3.9 Ga, possibly associated with, or after, the formation of the Imbrium basin. This age falls within a group of younger ages for granitic samples, measured mainly by ion microprobe analysis of zircon, compared to a suite of older ages, ca. 4.20–4.32 Ga, also from zircons (Meyer et al., 1996). A 3.8–3.9 Ga age may reflect an origin following the Imbrium event whereby granitic melt formed as a result of heating and melting, and was mobilized and emplaced along an Imbrium-related ring-fracture system. Silicic volcanic or exposed intrusive materials occur in several circum-Imbrium locations such as the Mairan and Gruithuisen Domes and in ejecta excavated by Aristarchus crater. Perhaps sample 12023,147-10 and some of the other granitic materials sampled at the Apollo 12 site represent rocks similar to the rocks that make up these large silicic rock occurrences.