Implications of dielectric breakdown weathering for the lunar regolith

Abstract:

Solar energetic particles (SEPs) penetrate the lunar regolith to depths of ~1 mm and cause deep dielectric charging. The greatest charging occurs in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), where temperatures make the electrical conductivity extremely low, which inhibits dissipating the charge buildup. Charging by very large SEP events may create subsurface electric fields that are strong enough to cause dielectric breakdown, or sparking, in the upper ~1 mm. Previous work has shown that, in PSRs, this breakdown weathering may have affected 10-25% of the meteoritically gardened regolith in PSRs and may thus be comparable to meteoritic weathering. But even regolith at lower latitudes can reach temperatures <100 K at night, causing it to dissipate charging in a few days--still enough to allow significant charging during large SEP events. Consequently, regolith at lower latitudes may also be susceptible to breakdown. We show how up to a few percent of gardened regolith at lower latitudes may have experienced breakdown. We also estimate the percentage of regolith that experienced breakdown during the two events detected in January and March 2012 by the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Finally, we discuss what this more global view of breakdown weathering implies about the possibility of Apollo and Luna soil samples containing material that may have experienced breakdown.