The Moon Was Volcanically Active Far More Recently Than Previously Believed

Amaze Lab

The Moon was once an ocean of magma, with its exterior eventually cooling. However, it remained volcanically active for eons and now experts say it had activity for around a billion years longer than anyone thought.

Transcript

00:00The moon was once an ocean of magma, with its exterior eventually cooling.

00:07Still, for millions of years underneath that dusty exterior, it was a volcanic place, with

00:12astronomers more recently discovering ancient lava tubes.

00:15Previous theories have suggested that the moon remained volcanically active until around

00:192 billion years ago.

00:20Now, after China's unmanned Chang'e 5 mission has returned lunar material for the first

00:24time in over 50 years, experts now say it was volcanic far more recently than previously

00:30believed.

00:31These are microscopic samples of volcanic glass beads taken from the moon's surface.

00:35And now, after radioscopic dating, researchers say they were created only around 120 million

00:40years ago, meaning the moon was volcanically active far more recently.

00:44However, the researchers say they also noticed a 1.9 billion year gap between eruptions,

00:49which likely points to very dwindling volcanism on the moon at that time.

00:53They add that this changes a lot of what we thought we knew about small celestial bodies,

00:57namely that they can maintain sufficient heat to sustain internal temperatures until very

01:01late in their lives.

01:03The researchers add that there is a chance the heat was maintained by pockets of radioactive

01:07decay, a process which also happens on Earth.

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