Geology of the Moon the Moon. Lunar rocks are in large part made of the same common rock forming minerals as found on Earth, such as olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase feldspar (anorthosite). Plagioclase feldspar is mostly found in the lunar crust, whereas pyroxene and olivine are typically seen in the lunar mantle. The mineral ilmenite is highly abundant in some mare basalts, and a new mineral named armalcolite (named for "Arm"strong, "Al"drin, and "Col"lins, the three members of the Apollo 11 crew) was first discovered in the lunar samples. The maria are composed predominantly of basalt, whereas the highland regions are iron-poor and composed
Primary minerals in the acidic igneous rocks and a second group of accessory minerals which were formed by deposition from the residual mother liquors. Modern soil science offers the following definition: "Primary Minerals: The thickness of the earth's crust varies from 10 km under the ocean to 30 km under the continents. Of the 88 naturally occurring elements on earth, only 8 make [up] most of the crust. The earth's crust and soils are dominated by the silicic acid in combination with Na, Al, K, Ca, Fe and O ions. ...Those elements are components of primary minerals, whereas primary minerals are components