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January 10, 1975

Mr. V.N. Vasudev
Chiradurga Copper Company
16/1 Ali Askar Road
Bangalore 560052, India

Dear Mr. Vasudev,

  Thank you for your letter of December 22, which I have read with much interest. I am glad to know that you found the book by Dr. Melson and myself on the lunar rocks stimulating; of course a lot more has been learned about the lunar rocks since that book was written, and I enclose some recent reprints which provide more recent information.

  My impression is that the lunar basalts are not closely comparable with primitive terrestrial  basalts such as the komatiites. the lunar basalts appear to me to be quite highly differentiated, especially in their high Ti0[[subscript]]2[[/subscript]] content and relatively high Fe/Mg ratios. Of course, it seems apparent now that the earth and the moon are fundamentally different in their geochemistry, the moon being relatively enriched in refractory elements and depleted in volatile ones. I believe they must have had a different bulk chemical composition from the very beginning.

  You are welcome to use any material in our book and in the enclosed reprints in preparing your article on the lunar rocks. I am enclosing some photographs which I hope may be useful for this article.

  With best wishes.

Sincerely yours,

Brian Mason
Curator
Department of Mineral Sciences

enclosures
BM/ag