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Samples of lunar rock from China – the first lunar rocks to return to Earth in more than 40 years – show that lava flowed there 2 billion years ago, scientists say.
In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, a group of international authors led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing said the Chang’e 5 lunar mission had collected samples of young lunar basalt lavas from the Oceanus Procellarum region.
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“Orbital data indicates that the youngest volcanic units on the moon are basaltic lavas in Oceanus Procellarum, an area with high levels of heat-producing elements like potassium, thorium and uranium,” wrote the ‘team.
Chinese lander Chang’e 5 used a drill to collect samples about 170 kilometers east-northeast of Mons Rümker – a large volcanic complex – and used radioactive dating to determine their age.
Moon samples from China’s Chang’e-5 Mission lunar exploration program are displayed at an exhibition at the National Museum in Beijing, China, March 3, 2021.
(REUTERS / Tingshu Wang)
By measuring the chemical and mineralogical compositions of volcanic rocks, the group found that the moon remained volcanically active longer than its size would indicate.
Moon rocks from the Apollo and Soviet missions in the 1960s and 1970s first revealed volcanism on the moon to have occurred for hundreds of millions of years.
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The authors of the new study note that there is “no evidence of high concentrations of heat-producing elements in the moon’s deep mantle that generated these lavas, so alternative explanations are needed for the longevity of magmatism. lunar”.
Chemical analysis did not show an abundance of radioactive elements that would have provided the heat necessary for late volcanism, and scientists still do not know why lava flowed on the moon so long after its formation.
Some theorize that Earth’s gravitational forces may have played a role.
The results could help scientists date surface regions on other parts of the solar system.
“The number of impact craters on a surface reflects its relative age, with older surfaces having more craters. The moon is the only planetary body where the ages of impact craters have been calibrated with radiometric dating, so the Lunar chronology is used to infer the ages of other planetary surfaces across the solar system, ”the researchers explained.
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Previously, scientists relied almost entirely on dating lunar samples that were 3 billion years old or older.
“In this study, we got a very precise age of about 2 billion years, plus or minus 50 million years,” said American co-author Brad Jolliff, a planetologist at the University of Washington in St Louis, in a press release. “It’s a phenomenal result. In terms of planetary time, it’s a very precise determination. And it’s good enough to distinguish the different formulations of the timeline.”
The moon formed about 4.5 billion years ago, 30 to 50 million years after the origin of the solar system.
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