Lunar soil, is it good for plants?

Steve Taylor wrote:
Fleetie wrote:


I rather doubt that lunar "soil"/"regiolith" (whatever the etymology of
that latter word be) would happen to be rich in all the nutrients that
plants need, and free of toxins.

We await informed comment.


Come on Martin, when has that ever stopped us ?
;-)

Steve


So, after a 10 minute quick tour of experimental geology....

Regolith is the name given to any ground up covering of big rocks with
little bits of powdered rock - Earth, Moon, Mars wherever. So Regolith
is not a specific name for that which we conveniently can call "lunar
soil" - I think we can all agree that the soil is biologically sterile.

Anyway, to quote from this webpage
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/education/...r/teacher3.htm

" The regolith consists of what you’d expect from an impact-generated
pile of debris. It contains rock and mineral fragments derived from the
original bedrock. It also contains glassy particles formed by the
impacts. In many lunar regoliths, half of the particles are composed of
mineral fragments that are bound together by impact glass; scientists
call these objects agglutinates. The chemical composition of the
regolith reflects the composition of the bedrock underneath. Regolith in
the highlands is rich in aluminum, as are highland rocks. Regolith in
the maria is rich in iron and magnesium, major constituents of basalt. A
little bit of mixing from beneath basalt layers or from distant highland
locales occurs, but not enough to obscure the basic difference between
the highlands and the maria."

I wonder if it would make a neat school type demonstration to utilise a
model lunar soil to grow stuff ?

Steve