A new study led by Prof. Chen Yi from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) provides an answer to the question of how young volcanism occurred on the moon.
A new study led by Prof. Chen Yi from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) provides an answer to the question of how young volcanism occurred on the moon.
The researchers found that mantle melting-point depression due to the presence of fusible, easily melted components could generate young lunar volcanism.
Their findings were published in Science Advances on Oct. 21.
Lunar samples returned by the Apollo and Luna missions are all older than about 3 billion years, leading scientists to suppose that the moon has been geologically dead since then. However, the new lunar samples returned by China’s Chang’E-5 mission in 2021 revealed surprisingly young volcanic activity only 2 billion years old.
For the small rocky moon, the heat fueling volcanic activity should have been lost long before these eruptions 2 billion years ago.
So what’s going on? Scientists previously speculated that either elevated water content or heat-producing elements in the lunar interior might have driven volcanism in the late stage of the moon’s life.
