New research suggests that volcanoes were still erupting on the moon at the time dinosaurs were alive on Earth. The evidence comes from three tiny glass beads from the surface of the moon. They were brought back to Earth by a Chinese spacecraft in 2020.
Their chemical makeup indicates that until about 120 million years ago, there were active lunar volcanoes, which is much more recent than scientists thought.
Previously, an analysis of rock samples from the Chang’e 5 mission seemed to demonstrate that volcanoes disappeared two billion years ago. Earlier estimates stretched back to four billion years ago.
So, the discovery of more recent volcanic activity was unexpected. Images taken in 2014 by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter showed evidence of recent volcanic activity. The glass beads were the first physical pieces of proof, although additional research is needed to confirm their origin.
The tiny glass beads were collected in lunar soil samples by China’s Chang’e 5 mission in December 2020. The mission was named after a Chinese goddess of the moon and was the fifth in a series of missions that aim to make human landings on the moon’s surface a possibility in the future.
The samples were the first moon rocks to be brought to Earth since NASA’s Apollo astronauts and Soviet Union spacecraft visited the moon in the 1970s. China returned samples from the far side of the moon in June.
According to He Yuyuang, a study co-author of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the research can improve our understanding of how long small planets and moons can remain volcanically active.
The researchers examined around 3,000 lunar glass beads that were smaller than a pinhead. They found three had signs that they came from a volcano.
The glass beads, also known as impact glasses or microtektites, can form on the moon when meteorites smash into the moon at high speeds, blasting chunks of lunar crust above the moon’s surface.
revers_jr – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
The force of the impact heats up silicate materials to molten temperatures and combines to produce tiny glass beads scattered across the landscape. Glass beads can also form after a volcanic eruption.
The new research also suggested that the moon had already cooled off past the point of volcanic activity. Hopefully, it inspires more studies to figure out how such a phenomenon could have happened.
Aside from providing clues about past volcanic activity, the glass beads could also serve as water sources for agencies that want to build bases on the moon in the future.
They are so abundant across the lunar surface that they can store up to 330 billion tons of water.
Some of the beads release water at the right temperatures and act as a reservoir that refills slowly over time. Overall, the glass beads help inform both our past and our future.
The study was published in the journal Science.
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