Fact sheet
67015 is a fragmental matrix breccia, made up mostly of feldspar, but with a wide range of highland lithologies represented as loose clasts in the matrix. The breccia is characterized by mineral, lithic and glass clasts contained in an unrecrystallized matrix of mineral grains and glass. Plagioclase clasts are the most abundant (95%). They are both rounded and angular with no overgrowths nor inclusions (rotation 2). Clasts of mafic minerals are typically very small and usually rounded in outline. Spinel grains are observed in the matrix but are relatively rare. The texture of 67015 is seriate. Pore space is also present as non-connecting veinlets and as rare, irregularly shaped vugs.
The sample weighed 1194 grams before analysis and has been tentatively dated at 3.9 billion years (Ar/Ar).
Further details of this and other Apollo samples are here: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/
The Apollo 16 landing site was in the hilly region around Descartes crater in the lunar highlands. The landing spot was chosen to allow the astronauts to gather geologically older lunar material (Descartes Formation and the Cayley Formation) than the samples obtained in the first four landings, which were in or near lunar maria.
The mission lasted 11.1 days, with a stay on the lunar surface of 71 hours. The crew were on the lunar surface for 20.2 hours during which they traversed approximately 27 kilometers and collected approximately 96 kilograms of samples.
Apollo 16 was launched on 16 April 1972.