According to new study, volcanoes on Earth continued to erupt considerably more recently than previously thought during the dinosaur era.
According to a study published on Thursday in the journal Science, three small glass beads that were gathered from the moon’s surface in 2020 by a Chinese spacecraft suggest that there was lunar volcanic activity as recently as 120 million years ago.
Prior estimates that there hadn’t been any active lunar volcanoes for over 4 billion years were updated by an earlier investigation of rocks returned by the Chang’e-5 lunar mission, which found that volcanic activity ceased roughly 2 billion years ago.
Approximately 3,000 lunar glass beads, which can result from meteorite strikes or volcanic eruptions, were studied by the researchers. Three of those were found to have volcanic origins based on their chemical composition and texturing.
The “unexpected” discovery “surprised and excited” the scientific team behind the study.
Two of the co-authors, Professor Li Qiu-Li and Associate Professor He Yuyang of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, stated in an email that the presence of such recent lunar volcanic activity “implies that small celestial bodies, such as the Moon, could maintain sufficient heat to sustain internal vitality until the very late stage.”
The study did note that it is still “unclear” how the moon might have maintained its volcanic activity for such a long period of time.
The University of Hong Kong’s Qian Yuqi, a planetary volcanism expert, stated that the finding of such comparatively young volcanoes has “significant” ramifications for the moon’s development.
“What sources are they using?” Qian, who did not participate in the study, stated by email. “It might inspire future missions to seek them out.”
After the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission and the American Apollo program in the 1970s, the Chang’e 5 lunar mission was the first to return samples from the moon. With the Chang’e-6 mission, China made history in June by being the first nation to recover rocks from the moon’s far side.
