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Returned samples indicate volcanism on the Moon 120 million years ago

Affiliations
  • 1State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric and Environmental Coevolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
  • 2College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
  • 3School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
  • 4Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
  • 5Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222, USA.

Published on:

September 5, 2024

Abstract

There is extensive geologic evidence of ancient volcanic activity on the Moon, but it is unclear how long that volcanism persisted. Magma fountains produce volcanic glasses, which have previously been found in samples of the Moon’s surface. We investigated ~3000 glass beads in lunar soil samples collected by the Chang’e-5 mission and identified three as having a volcanic origin on the basis of their textures, chemical compositions, and sulfur isotopes. Uranium-lead dating of the three volcanic glass beads shows that they formed 123 ± 15 million years ago. We measured high abundances of rare earth elements and thorium in these volcanic glass beads, which could indicate that such recent volcanism was related to local enrichment of heat-generating elements in the mantle sources of the magma.

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