Glass beads indicate lunar volcanism 120 million years ago

September 6 () –

Volcanic eruptions occurred on the Moon just 120 million years ago, according to analysis of samples collected by the Chang’e 5 mission published in the journal Science.

Samples collected by the Apollo, Luna, and Chang’e-5 missions had previously shown that there was widespread basaltic volcanism on the Moon spanning from about 4.4 to 2 billion years ago. The new findings show that volcanism persisted much longer than previously suspected, at least on a smaller, more localized scale.

Bi-Wen Wang, Qian WL Zhang and their colleagues from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciencesclassified more than 3,000 tiny glass beads they recovered from a lunar sample collected by Chang’e-5, examining the beads’ chemical compositions, physical textures, and sulfur isotopes to distinguish potential volcanic glasses from glasses produced by meteorite impacts.

So, Three pearls were identified as being of volcanic originThey then used radiometric dating to determine the volcanic pearls formed 123 million years ago. Volcanic pearls contain large amounts of potassium, phosphorus and rare earth elements, known as KREEP elements, which can produce radioactive heating.

Localized heating due to KREEP elements could melt rocks in the lunar mantle, which would cause small amounts of magma to rise to the surface, the researchers suggest.