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There was a time when the Moon also had volcanic eruptions like the one we are seeing now on La Palma.

Scientists already knew this but now, analysis of the rocks that a Chinese robotic spacecraft brought back last December has revealed that our satellite had volcanic activity for longer than previously thought.

The discovery made thanks to these rocks collected by the

Chang'e-5

mission

- the first to be collected on the Moon since 1972, when the US Apollo program ended - also shows how much remains to be discovered on our satellite. Only the US, the USSR and recently China have managed to bring samples to Earth for analysis.

As the authors of this Chinese research explain in the journal

Science

, the basalt recovered in the landing zone of the robotic spacecraft is about 2 billion years old (1,963 million years exactly). What is in that area known as Oceanus Procellarum are the

lavas that once flowed from the volcanoes

, and that with the passage of time cooled and solidified, as can be observed in multiple places in the Canary Islands and in many other places. Earth that have suffered from volcanic activity in the past.

"Until now it was thought that lunar volcanism had been older and ceased much earlier.

These new data indicate that we must review (and revisit) the processes that may have caused this greater longevity of primary volcanism or that, perhaps, could have more emission pulses that rejuvenate the surfaces ", explains the planetary geologist Jesús Martínez Frías, head of the Research Group on Meteorites and Planetary Geosciences of the CSIC and founder of the Spanish Network of Planetology and Astrobiology.

By bringing the rocks to Earth, the team led by Xiaochao Che, from the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, has been able to accurately analyze their isotopes and estimate both their age and composition. In this study they show the results of the study of two of these basalt fragments that they claim were formed from magma that erupted 2,000 million years ago, a time after other lunar eruptions whose traces have been found in other areas of the surface.

How were those lunar eruptions?

"My impression is that the great lava seas had to be really spectacular

(there are still many lunar volcanic structures, such as domes, streams, sinuous rilles, etc.). It was a volcanism more associated with the enormous impacts. On Earth we have more energy (geological vitality) and therefore we also observe a greater geodiversity both in volcanic buildings, as in the petrology and geochemistry of their magmas, as well as in the active geodynamics that continues today (as we see, for example in La Palma) " explains the author of

The Birmingham Key.

Other volcanoes in the Solar System

"The truth is that the Moon is giving us surprises in many ways, with the processes of surface oxidation, the metallic mass under the south pole, the different types of water (in the form of ice) and now with the younger ages of volcanism The variation in the age of volcanism is not entirely surprising, but it does force us to restructure geological patterns on our satellite and its endogenous and superficial processes ", points out this planetary geologist.

In other planets and bodies of the Solar System, Martínez Frías recalls, there is also evidence that there is or was volcanic activity: "We have seen it on Mars, Venus, Ceres, Pluto ...", he points out.

There are also earthquakes on the Moon, or rather earthquakes (

moonquakes

) although as Martínez Frías clarifies, "they are not exactly like terrestrial ones, but are more associated with the joint vibration of the lunar monoplate due to different processes, both endogenous and exogenous (eg impact of objects / meteoroids) ".

The craterESA

The Martian crater Perseverance works in housed a lake

NASA's

Perseverance

rover

continues to work on Mars and scientists, analyzing the samples and images it takes from Earth.

This Thursday, a team confirmed that the Jezero crater in which the robot works housed a lake 3.7 billion years ago, when the Martian climate was hot and humid.

Traces of the old delta are visible in the different geological layers of the area in which

Perseverance

landed last February.

The team, led by Nicolas Mangold and Sanjeev Gupta, have calculated how the flow of the old river varied over time.

At the bottom of the cliff they have identified layers that are especially promising for Perseverance's research because if there ever was life on Mars, as is believed, those clay-like rocks could retain traces to prove it.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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