Prospects for Dating the South Pole-Aitken Basin through Impact-Melt Rock Samples

Abstract: Much of the present debate about the ages of the nearside basins arises because of the difficulty in understanding the relationship of recovered samples to their parent basin. The Apollo breccias are from basin ejecta formations, which are ballistically-emplaced distal deposits that have mixed provenances. The Nectaris, Imbrium, and Serenitatis basins all have mare-basalt fill obscuring their original melt sheets, so geochemical ties are indirect. Though the geological processes acting to ver…