Quantitative analysis of Apollo-17 mare basalt (70017-291) was carried out for its containing 26 elements by instrumental neutron activation technique with the rock standard BCR-1 prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey as the multielement irradiation standard. For most of the elements, the analytical error is confined to + 10%. A comparison was made of the analytical results with those obtained from Apollo-11 and Apollo-12 mare basalt samples.
The ∑REE in Ioesses of different ages in the Luochuan section shows a narrow range of variation, indicating the homogeneity of materials in chemical composition. The REE in loess are concentrated mainly in silt.sized detrital minerals. Loesses of different ages and paleosols all are relatively enriched in rare-earth elements of the Ce family, and show similar REE distribution patterns. The fractinnatlon among various REEs in the loess is different from that in morainic, marine and lacustrine sediments,but is similar to that in sand samples from deserts in Northwest China. The ratios of Ce/Ce^* and Eu/Eu^* reflect that the provenance of loessic materials and their accumulating area are all in an oxidation environment with weakly basic mediums under arid or sub-arid climate.
