Two-billion-year-old volcanism on the Moon from Chang’e-5 basalts

Abstract

The Moon has a magmatic and thermal history that is distinct from that of the terrestrial planets ¹ . Radioisotope dating of lunar samples suggests that most lunar basaltic magmatism ceased by around 2.9–2.8 billion years ago (Ga) ^{2, 3} , although younger basalts between 3 Ga and 1 Ga have been suggested by crater-counting chronology, which has large uncertainties owing to the lack of returned samples for calibration ^{4, 5} . Here we report a precise lead–lead age of 2,030 ± 4 million years ago for basalt clasts returned by the Chang’e-5 mission, and a ²³⁸U/ ²⁰⁴Pb ratio ( µ value) ⁶ of about 680 for a source that evolved through two stages of differentiation. This is the youngest crystallization age reported so far for lunar basalts by radiometric dating, extending the duration of lunar volcanism by approximately 800–900 million years. The µ value of the Chang’e-5 basalt mantle source is within the range of low-titanium and high-titanium basalts from Apollo sites ( µ value of about 300–1,000), but notably lower than those of potassium, rare-earth elements and phosphorus (KREEP) and high-aluminium basalts ⁷ ( µ value of about 2,600–3,700), indicating that the Chang’e-5 basalts were produced by melting of a KREEP-poor source. This age provides a pivotal calibration point for crater-counting chronology in the inner Solar System and provides insight on the volcanic and thermal history of the Moon.

Abstract

Basalt samples returned from the Moon by the Chang’e-5 mission are revealed to be two billion years old by radioisotopic dating, providing insight on the volcanic history of the Moon.