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Planetary science

Traces of ancient lunar water

Nature Geoscience volume 6, pages 159–160 (2013)Cite this article

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The presence of water in lunar volcanic rocks has been attributed to delivery after the Moon formed. Water detected in rocks from the ancient lunar highlands suggests that the Moon already contained water early in its history, and poses more challenges for the giant impact theory of Moon formation.

Its birth is shrouded in mystery: the time and place uncertain, the parental lineage unknown, and the details of exactly how it came to be are not yet fully discerned. But gradually the Moon is giving up its secrets, and none are more surprising than the revelation that it contains water deep within1,2,3,4. How and when the Moon acquired this water is an area of active research. Writing in Nature Geoscience, Hui et al.5 report the detection of water in plagioclase crystals from lunar highland rocks — the oldest rocks from the lunar surface — and conclude that the Moon must have contained a significant amount of water at the time these rocks formed, at a very early stage when most of the Moon's body still consisted of a magma ocean.

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Figure 1: Watery Moon.

© THINKSTOCK / ISTOCKPHOTO

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  1. Erik H. Hauri is at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Rd, Washington DC 20015, USA,

    Erik H. Hauri

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  1. Erik H. Hauri
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Correspondence to Erik H. Hauri.

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Hauri, E. Traces of ancient lunar water. Nature Geosci 6, 159–160 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1752

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