A sample of the Moon's far side retrieved by Chang'e-6 contains 2.83-billion-year-old basalt

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cui, Zexian; Yang, Qing; Zhang, Yan-Qiang; Wang, Chengyuan; Xian, Haiyang; Chen, Zhiming; Xiao, Zhiyong; Qian, Yuqi; Head, James W.; Neal, Clive R.; Xiao, Long; Luo, Fanglu; Chen, Jingyou; He, Pengli; Cao, Yonghua; Zhou, Qin; Huang, Fangfang; Chen, Linli; Wei, Bo; Wang, Jintuan; Yang, Ya-Nan; Li, Shan; Yang, Yiping; Lin, Xiaoju; Zhu, Jianxi; Zhang, Le; Xu, Yi-Gang
• 署名单位: Chinese Academy of Sciences; Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, CAS; Chinese Academy of Sciences; Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, CAS; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS; Sun Yat Sen University; University of Hong Kong; University of Hong Kong; Brown University; University of Notre Dame; China University of Geosciences; Chinese Academy of Sciences; Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, CAS
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-13396
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adt1093
• 发表日期: 2024-12-20
• 页码: 1395-1399
• 关键词: pole-aitken basin; rb-sr ages; u-th-pb; isotopic compositions; mare basalts; sm-nd; analytical bias; trace-element; high-ti; lunar

摘要

Remote sensing observations have shown that the far side of the Moon (lunar farside) has different geology and rock composition to those of the nearside, including the abundances of potassium, rare earth elements, and phosphorus (collectively known as KREEP). The Chang'e-6 (CE-6) spacecraft collected samples from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin on the farside and brought them to Earth. We used lead-lead and rubidium-strontium isotope systems to date low-titanium basalt in a CE-6 sample, finding a consistent age of 2830 (+/- 5) million years. We interpret this as the date of volcanism in SPA and incorporate it into lunar crater chronology. Strontium, neodymium, and lead isotopes indicate that the volcanic magma was from a lunar mantle source depleted in incompatible elements and containing almost no KREEP component.