How young is volcanism on the Moon?

Volcanic glass beads date lunar magmatism to 120 million years ago The Moon is the extraterrestrial body that is not only the closest to Earth, but also the best sampled and best explored celestial object. Analyses of rocks and soils delivered by the Apollo and Luna missions have established that th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2024-09, Vol.385 (6713), p.1049-1049
Main Authors: Amelin, Yuri, Yin, Qing-Zhu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Lunar rocks
Lunar surface
Magma
Moon
Rocks
Soil analysis
Space missions
Volcanic activity
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Summary:Volcanic glass beads date lunar magmatism to 120 million years ago The Moon is the extraterrestrial body that is not only the closest to Earth, but also the best sampled and best explored celestial object. Analyses of rocks and soils delivered by the Apollo and Luna missions have established that the Moon is ancient, dry, and depleted of volatile elements. Studies also have indicated that early in its history, the Moon was covered with molten rock. This magma ocean eventually cooled and produced a compositionally diverse surface crust ( 1 ). How long the Moon produced magma has been an open question. On page 1077 of this issue, Wang et al . ( 2 ) report that volcanism on the Moon occurred as recently as 120 million years ago (Ma). This implies that the Moon may still be able to produce magma.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.adr9336