For the first time, huge deposits of granite have been discovered on the Moon, previously found in such quantities only on Earth. They were discovered with the help of Chinese satellites, which noticed the increase in heat coming from the region on the far side of the moon. This is stated in the study published in the journal Nature.
Until recently, scientists were unaware of the existence of large granite deposits on other celestial bodies, which form under conditions of volcanic activity. Several particles of this rock were brought with 300 kg of lunar soil by the American manned Apollo missions that flew half a century ago.
However, recent observations from the two Chinese orbital stations Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 have for the first time discovered huge granite deposits comparable to those on Earth on the far side of the Moon.
Radiometers operating in the range of 3 to 37 gigahertz, while building a heat map of the lunar surface, discovered a large anomaly, in the region of which the heat flux is about 180 mW per square meter , which is 20 times greater than the average heat flux on the lunar surface. This thermal anomaly with a diameter of more than 50 kilometers was discovered in the area of the Compton-Belkovich volcanic complex. The analysis showed that the heat source is a rock with a high content of radioactive elements, which under the conditions of the Moon can only be granite.
“Usually, the formation of granite requires the movement of tectonic plates or the presence of magma with water,” explained study author Timothy Glotch of Stony Brook University (USA). Because the moon’s interior contains little water, plate tectonics has never been observed on the moon. Therefore, the discovery of a granite complex or a batholith indicates an as yet unresolved process responsible for the formation of granite.
According to scientists, the discovery of large deposits of granite could indicate that in the distant past, at least in this region of the moon, the rocks had a high water content. “If you don’t have water, it takes an extreme situation to form granite. And that’s a system where there’s granite, but there’s no water and tectonics. Y Was there any water on the Moon, at least in that region, or was it particularly hot?” asks study co-author Matthew Sigler.
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