Moon Fire Fountains: Carbon Triggered Lava Blasts of Volatile Moon

Summary: Volcanic glass beads reveal ancient lunar volatility as carbon triggered lava blasts, according to a letter published Aug. 24 in Nature Geoscience.

Lunar volcanic glass beads appear as strange orange soil on the moon: Apollo 17 Crew, Public Domain, via NASA

The ancient scenario unfolding for the moon, the Earth’s only natural satellite, features persistent volatility reminiscent of such fire fountains as eruptions from Hawaii’s Puu Oo and southwestern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcanoes.

Current research hypothesizes a collision in the early solar system between Early Earth and Theia, a Mars-size planet, as the source of debris for the moon’s formation. The collision presumably occurred around 4.533 billion years ago (BYa) during Early Earth, the first billion years of the Blue Planet’s existence.

As the early moon coalesced from spewed debris, carbon-steeped magma (Ancient Greek: μάγμα, mágma, “ointment, thick unguent”) combined with oxygen to form carbon monoxide during its rise from lunar depths. With decreasing pressure near the lunar surface, lava laced with carbon monoxide bubbles exploded above ground as fiery fountains.

Volcanic glass, formed from droplets of molten lava on the lunar surface, often preserves gases by way of melt inclusions, tiny dots of magma in crystal enclosures. Super-sensitivity of the NanoSIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) ion probe, manufactured by France-based SIMS superstar CAMECA (Compagnie des Applications Mécaniques et Électroniques au Cinéma et à l’Atomistique), enabled a breakthrough discovery in understanding lunar volcanic glass at Washington D.C.’s Carnegie Institution for Science by Erik H. Hauri, a geochemist at the private institution, in collaboration with a research trio of Brown University professors: Diane T. Wetzel, Alberto E. Saal, and Malcolm J. Rutherford.

The team carefully examined melt-inclusion volcanic glass beads retrieved during the Apollo 15 (July 26, 1971–Aug. 7, 1971) and 17 missions (Dec. 7, 1972–Dec. 19, 1972). Startling findings of high levels of carbon within melt inclusions, similar to amounts in mid-ocean ridge basaltic eruptions on Earth, have guided the researchers toward a degassing model of initial carbon monoxide-triggered fire fountain eruptions as facilitating the escape of hydrogen gas onto the surface for combination with oxygen in water formation.

The researchers’ model dovetails with the 2008 discovery of traces of lunar water by Alberto E. Saal via analysis of similar samples of volcanic glass and subsequent detections of a trio of volatiles: chlorine, fluorine and sulfur. The discovery of water and the detection of carbon’s degassing patterns attest to an active, volatile moon and suggest volatile commonalities for the interiors of the Earth and its moon.

The lunar profile that emerges in the early 21st century suggests a dynamic history that contradicts the cool, quiet constancy of Earth’s modern moon and tackles the enigmatic, pitted, scarred far side of the moon.

Moon fire fountains support William Shakespeare’s seeming lunar mistrust as evinced in Juliet’s disavowal: “O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon . . .” (Romeo and Juliet: The Balcony Scene, Act II, scene 2)

Apollo 17's geologist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt at Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) near where he first spotted orange soil; panorama of Family Mountain (center background) and Shorty Crater (right); Dec. 12, 1972, photo by astronaut Eugene Cernan: NASA on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

strange orange soil on the moon: Apollo 17 Crew, Public Domain, via NASA @ http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010523.html

Apollo 17's geologist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt at Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) near where he first spotted orange soil; panorama of Family Mountain (center background) and Shorty Crater (right); Dec. 12, 1972, photo by astronaut Eugene Cernan: NASA on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/9457461481/

For further information:

Ames Research Center News Release. “NASA-Funded Scientists Make Watershed Lunar Discovery.” NASA > Centers > Ames Home > News > Releases > 2011. May 26, 2011.
Available via NASA @ http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2011/11-38AR.html

“Fire Fountains on Moon Mystery Solved.” EarthSky > Science Wire/Space. Aug. 24, 2015.
Available @ http://earthsky.org/space/fire-fountains-on-moon-mystery-solved

Greenfieldboyce, Nell. “Glass Beads from Moon Hint of Watery Past.” NPR > News > Science > Space. July 9, 2008.
Available @ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92383117

Lewin, Sarah. “Fire Fountains of the Ancient Moon Explained.” Space.com. Aug. 24, 2015.
Available @ http://www.space.com/30352-fire-fountains-ancient-moon-explained.html

NASA Goddard. "NASA / Evolution of the Moon." YouTube. March 14, 2012.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIKmSQqp8wY

“Strange Orange Soil on the Moon.” NASA > Astronomy Picture of the Day. May 23, 2001.
Available via NASA @ http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010523.html

Wetzel, Diane T.; Erik H. Hauri; Alberto E. Saal; and Malcolm J. Rutherford. “Carbon Content and Degassing History of the Lunar Volcanic Glasses.” Nature Geoscience. Published online Aug. 24, 2015.
Available via Nature Publishing Group @ http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2511.html