The arguments presented by Griscom (1975) in response to our paper (Morris et al., 1975) require a magnetite-like phase and an equivalent or larger amount of metallic iron to be the components that are observed in the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectra of lunar soils. In addition Griscom et al. (1975) concluded from FMR studies up to ~300¿C that mature lunar soils contain 0.1 to 0.5 wt. % of a magnetite-like phase. It seems highly unlikely that a Curie point for such a large amount of a magnetite-like phase would not be observed in the FMR thermomagnetic studies (ie, both (ΔH)2A and ΔH versus T) up to 900¿C of Morris et al. (1975). That is, the only Curie point observed in both the (ΔH)2A and ΔH data of Morris et al. (1975) was at 770¿C, which was attributed to pure or nearly pure metallic iron. The irreversible loss of intensity is thus best attributed to oxidation of metallic iron to FeO. |