In my optical mineralogy class, my professor gave us the opportunity to look at the rocks brought back from the Apollo landings. These rocks were prepaired as thinsections, which is a piece of rock mounted on a glass slide and thinned to the point where light will pass through the minerals. Usually to a thickness of aproximatly 3 microns. These thin sections can then be examined under a Petrographic Microscope.
The thin sections were very interesting. When Lunar Basalt is compared to terrestrial Basalt, there is absolutly no evidence of weathering in the lunar rocks. Also the Anthrocite which makes up the Lunar Highlands is heavily fractured from the many meteorite impacts on the surface of the moon... but there is no indication of weathering in these fractures. Both of these indicate an environment with little or no atmosphere, and no water.
Also, there was a thin section of a Titanium rich mineral (can't remember the name) which was thrown up from a meteorite impact. These crystals were predominatly round in shape, If they had fallen through an atmosphere like ours, they would be teardrop shaped due to drag.
Attached are pictures of the thin sections of the moon rocks. First is the Lunar Basalt under cross polarized light, second is Lunar Anthrocite also under cross polarized light, and finally the titanium rich mineral under polarized light.
-PRK543
