Volcanic Eruptions Rocked Moon’s Far Side for Over a Billion Years

A team of scientists, led by Professor XU Yigang from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GIGCAS), is examining the unique characteristics of the Moon.

Their research focuses on lunar soil samples collected from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the Moon’s far side by China’s Chang’e-6 mission. These samples have provided valuable insights into the Moon’s mysterious past and its geological dichotomy.

The analysis of the soil samples by Professor XU’s team revealed the presence of two distinct types of mare basalts: low-Ti and very low-Ti (VLT). Professor XU highlighted that the samples returned by Chang’e-6 offer an excellent opportunity to study the lunar global dichotomy.

Chang’e-6, launched by China’s space program on May 3, embarked on its latest mission to the Moon. The spacecraft was launched at 9:27 UT (5:27 PM Beijing time) from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre. It landed on the South Pole-Aitken Basin, a massive crater, where the team used a scoop and a drill to collect surface samples, digging as deep as two meters into the lunar soil.

Additionally, a small rover was deployed to explore the area, taking photographs of the lander at work.

Here’s what the scientists discovered on the Moon: Using high-precision Pb-Pb dating techniques, the team determined that the low-Ti basalt samples are approximately 2.83 billion years old. This finding confirmed the occurrence of volcanic activities, or “young” magmatism, on the Moon’s far side.

The scientists inferred that increased volcanic activity on the Moon’s far side occurred for at least 1.4 billion years, spanning from 4.2 billion to 2.8 billion years ago. Independent planetary volcano expert Christopher Hamilton noted that the samples collected from this previously uncharted lunar territory were crucial for this discovery.