[Rockhounds] Tiny glass beads suggest the moon had active volcanoes when dinosaurs roamed Earth

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Volcanoes were still erupting on the moon when dinosaurs roamed Earth, new
research suggests.

The evidence: three tiny glass beads plucked from the surface of the moon
<https://apnews.com/article/china-capsule-moon-rocks-da510a5fd9a97505296ddbdb5749c393>
and
brought to Earth in 2020 by a Chinese spacecraft. Their chemical makeup
indicates that there were active lunar volcanoes until about 120 million
years ago, much more recent than scientists thought.

An earlier analysis of the rock samples
<https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-business-china-moon-1579f0cecab5c739c4dabd1283aa3b6a>
from
the Chang’e 5 mission had suggested volcanoes petered out 2 billion years
ago. Previous estimates stretched back to 4 billion years ago.

The research was published Thursday in the journal Science
<https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk6635>.

“It was a little bit unexpected,” said Julie Stopar, a senior staff
scientist with the Lunar and Planetary Institute who was not involved with
the research.

Images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2014 had also suggested
more recent volcanic activity. The glass beads are the first physical
evidence, Stopar said, although more research is needed to confirm their
origin.

https://apnews.com/article/moon-volcano-lava-glass-beads-china-3d5b0dfce0cdf8f7a9b2607072f997c9