Laser probe /Ar-39/-/Ar-40/ dating of materials from consortium breccia 73215

The unique capacity of the laser-probe (Ar-39)-(Ar-40) method to determine ages of constituents in a rock sample which are only of the order of 100 microns apart has been applied to measure ages of the different constituents of consortium breccia 73215. Evidence is given that the age of the melt-derived ground mass, 4.01 + or - 0.05 billion years, has no chronological significance. Instead, the best estimate for the age of the breccia-forming event, about 3.90 billion years, comes from the study of two clasts only a few hundred micrometers in size. The interpretation of this age as the age of the breccia-forming event is also supported by the studies of other consortium members and suggests a reinterpretation of the ages of most of the other Apollo 17 highland breccias.