Beijing (ANTARA) – A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday (13/1) said that the powerful vegetation that occurs on the far side of the moon removes volatile material from the moon’s mantle.
Since the moon was formed, asteroid impacts have been the dominant geological process triggered by events outside the moon, producing impact craters and depressions across the lunar surface and greatly changing both the moon’s topography and geochemical characteristics. However, the extent to which large-scale impact events affected the moon’s interior remains unclear.
A research team led by Tian Hengci from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), examined the potassium (K) isotope composition in lunar basalt rocks collected by the Chang’e-6 mission from the SPA basin.
Isotope systems of moderately volatile elements, such as potassium, are susceptible to volatilization and fractionation under the high temperature conditions produced by collisions.
The composition of these isotopic systems can record information, such as temperature, pressure, and material source, during the impact event, making them important evidence for revealing the scale of the impact, its thermal history, and its modification of the lunar crust and mantle materials.
The research team found that lunar basalt rocks from the Chang’e-6 mission showed a much heavier potassium isotope composition than all previously reported lunar basalts from the Apollo missions and lunar meteorites.
In addition, the research team also evaluated a number of potential mechanisms that could modify the potassium isotope composition, including long-term exposure to cosmic ray radiation, magmatic differentiation, and input from impacting bodies. However, the results show that these factors only have a small effect.
Further research showed that the impact event had changed the potassium isotope composition of the lunar mantle, leading to an increase in the isotope values.
During high-temperature and high-pressure processes resulting from collisions, lighter potassium isotopes tend to evaporate more easily than heavier isotopes. This causes an increase in the isotope ratio in the residual material.
The study also implies that such depletion of volatile material could suppress magma formation and volcanic activity on the lunar far side, potentially contributing to the long-known asymmetry of volcanic activity between the Moon’s near and far sides.
Reporter: Xinhua
Editor: Hanni Sofia
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