Friction Experiments on Lunar Analog Gouges and Implications for the Mechanism of the Apollo 17 Long Runout Landslide

Abstract

The Light Mantle landslide is a hypermobile landslide on the Moon. Apollo 17 astronauts collected a core sample of the top 60 cm of the Light Mantle deposit, which is currently being analyzed as part of the NASA's Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis program. The origin of its hypermobility remains undetermined, as the proposed mechanisms are difficult to prove because of the lack of theoretical and experimental support and the scarcity of field data related to the internal structures of its deposit. Regardless of the emplacement mechanisms, it has been proposed that localized dynamic frictional weakening is responsible for the early stage instability that leads to catastrophic failure. Here, we conduct friction experiments under vacuum to investigate the viability of dynamic friction weakening in lunar analog anorthosite‐bearing gouges (i.e., rock powders). Our results show that localized dynamic friction weakening does not occur in these gouges at loading conditions where, instead, weakening is observed in other materials on Earth. Therefore, possibly other fluidization‐related mechanisms contributed to the initiation of the hypermobile Light Mantle landslide. Finally, we describe the microstructures formed in the experiments, including the presence of clast cortex aggregates. Preliminary investigation of the Light Mantle core samples (73001/73002) shows the presence of similar microstructures. Therefore, our microstructural observations will help the analysis and interpretation of the Apollo 17 core samples, as keys to insights about internal processes occurring during the emplacement of the landslide.