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Southern Impact Reveals Magma Ocean in Moon’s Largest Crater: Study

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Approximately 4.3 billion years ago, during the early formation of our solar system, a massive asteroid collided with the far side of the moon, resulting in the creation of the South Pole-Aitken Basin—an enormous crater. This feature, the largest on the moon, spans over 1,200 miles in length and 1,000 miles in width. Its rectangular shape is attributed to a glancing impact rather than a direct hit. Challenging previous beliefs that the basin was formed by an asteroid coming from the south, recent research indicates that the narrowing shape of the basin towards the south suggests an impact from the north.

The South Pole-Aitken Impact Basin on the far side of the Moon was formed by a southward impact. Image credit: Jeff Andrews-Hanna / University of Arizona / NASA / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

“The downstream edge of the basin should have a thick layer of material that was excavated from the moon’s interior by the impact, while the upper edge should not,” explained Dr. Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona.

“This suggests that the Artemis mission will target the downrange rim of the basin, an ideal site to examine the moon’s largest and oldest impact basins, where most of the ejecta, consisting of material from deep within the moon, are likely to be gathered.”

Historically, it has been believed that early moons were molten due to the energy released during their formation, resulting in a magma ocean that enveloped the entire moon.

As this magma ocean solidified, heavy minerals settled to create the Moon’s mantle, while lighter minerals floated upwards to form the Earth’s crust.

Nevertheless, certain elements were not incorporated into the solid mantle and crust, but instead became concentrated in the last liquid remnants of the magma ocean.

These “residual” elements, including potassium, rare earth elements, and phosphorus, are collectively known as KREEP.

Dr. Andrews-Hanna and his team noted that these elements appear to be especially abundant on the moon’s near side.

“If you’ve ever frozen a can of soda, you might have noticed that high fructose corn syrup doesn’t freeze all the way through and instead accumulates at the bottom of the liquid,” remarked Dr. Andrews-Hanna.

“We believe a similar phenomenon occurred on the moon with KREEP.”

“Over millions of years, as it cooled, the magma ocean crystallized into the crust and mantle.”

“Eventually, only a small amount of liquid remained trapped between the mantle and the crust, which is this KREEP-rich material.”

“The abundance of KREEP’s heat-producing elements somehow concentrated on the moon’s near side, causing it to heat up and initiate intense volcanic activity, thus creating the dark volcanic plains visible from Earth.”

“However, the process by which this KREEP-rich material became concentrated on the near side and how it evolved remains an enigma.”

“The moon’s crust is considerably thicker on the far side compared to the near side that faces Earth, a discrepancy that continues to puzzle scientists.”

“This asymmetry influences various aspects of the moon’s development, including the final stages of the magma ocean.”

“Our hypothesis posits that as the far side’s crust thickened, the underlying magma ocean was forced outward, akin to squeezing toothpaste from a tube, causing most of it to accumulate on the near side.”

A recent investigation of the Antarctic Aitken Basin has uncovered unexpected asymmetries supporting this scenario. The western ejecta blanket is rich in radioactive thorium, while the eastern side is not.

This indicates that the rift left by the impact formed a conduit through the moon’s crust, near the boundary separating the “normal” crust from the underlying layers that contain the final remnants of the KREEP-rich magma ocean.

“Our research shows that the distribution and composition of these materials align with predictions derived from modeling the later stages of magma ocean evolution,” stated Dr. Andrews-Hanna.

“The last remnants of the Moon’s magma ocean have reached the near side, where the concentration of radioactive elements is at its peak.”

“However, prior to this, there may have been a thin, patchy layer of magma ocean beneath parts of the far side, explaining the presence of radioactive ejecta on one flank of the Antarctic Aitken Basin.”

For further information, refer to the study published in the journal Nature.

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JC Andrews-Hanna et al. 2025. The southern impact excavated a magma ocean in the Moon’s South Pole Aitken Basin. Nature 646, 297-302; doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09582-y

Source: www.sci.news

Scientists worldwide discover a substantial magma reservoir beneath the inactive volcano

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The magma reservoir under the cascade range has a different depth, size, and complexity, but the upper magma body is spread, according to the Global Scientist’s team at Cornell University and Cascade Volcano Observatory.

Mountleinia. Image credit: Walter Siegmund / CC by-Sa 3.0.

The visible lava on the surface is an obvious indicator of the activity, but the long-standing beliefs are expelled during the eruption of active volcanoes, and there are large magma body that breaks down over time as the volcano becomes dormant. That is.

But A New study It is published in the journal Natural global science Challenge this assumption.

The study author has identified the magma chamber under the six volcanoes, six volcanoes of various sizes within the cascade range and six volcanoes.

They discovered that all of the volcanoes, including dormant state, have a sustainable and large magma body.

Given that some of these volcanoes, such as Lake Lake in Oregon, have not been active for thousands of years, the results are surprising.

“Regardless of the frequency of eruptions, you can see a large magma under a lot of volcanoes,” said Dr. Guaning Pan, a researcher at Cornel University.

“These magma bodies seem to be not only active, but also under volcanoes for a lifetime.”

The fact that more volcanoes maintain a magma body is an important consideration on how researchers monitor and predict future volcanic activities.

“We thought that if we found a large amount of magma, we thought it would increase the potential of eruptions, but now we change the perception that this is the baseline situation,” said Dr. Pan. Ta.

The result suggests that the eruption does not completely discharge the magma chamber, indicating that it eliminates excessive amounts and pressure instead.

The chamber can gradually solve the crust, so it can be slowly expanded and replenished over time.

“With a general understanding of where the magma is, I was able to do a good job rather than optimizing monitoring,” said Professor Jeffrey Aberters of Cornell University.

“There are many volcanoes that are sparse or not intensive research.”

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G. bread et al。 Partial melting long life under the volcano in the cascade range. nut. GeosciReleased online on January 23, 2025. Doi: 10.1038/S41561-024-01630-Y

Source: www.sci.news

New research indicates that Jupiter’s moon Io does not have an underground magma ocean

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Juno and Galileo’s volcanic activity on Io, Jupiter’s innermost Galilean moon and the most volcanically active object in the solar system, is unlikely to originate from a global magma ocean just below the surface. Deep space networks and astronomical observations, according to new analysis of Doppler data.

The internal structure of Io revealed by this research. Image credit: Sofia Shen / NASA / JPL / Caltech.

Slightly larger than Earth’s moon, Io is the most volcanically active object in the solar system.

It is the innermost of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, which in addition to Io includes Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Trapped in a gravitational tug of war between Jupiter, Europa, and Ganymede, Io is constantly squeezed, causing frictional heat to build up within its interior, which is thought to be the cause of sustained and widespread volcanic activity.

Volcanic activity on the Moon was first discovered in 1979. That’s when Linda Morabito, an engineer on NASA’s Voyager program, spotted an eruption plume in one of the images taken by the spacecraft during its famous Grand Tour of the outer planets.

Since then, countless observations have been made from both space telescopes and telescopes on Earth documenting Io’s restless nature.

“Io is Galileo’s innermost moon, orbiting Jupiter every 42.5 hours,” said Juno collaborator Dr. Ryan Park of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and colleagues.

“It has an average diameter of 3,643 km and a bulk density of 3,528 kg/m.3 As such, it is approximately 5% larger than the Moon, both in diameter and density.”

“Io’s eccentric orbit changes its distance from Jupiter by about 3,500 km, which leads to fluctuations in Jupiter’s gravitational pull.”

“Similar to the Moon’s tides caused by Earth, these gravitational fluctuations cause tidal deformations on Io, which are theorized to serve as the main energy source for the intense volcanism and infrared radiation observed on Io’s surface.”

The amount of tidal energy could be enough to cause Io’s interior to melt, potentially forming a magma ocean underground, but this theory is controversial.

Measuring the extent of Io’s tidal deformation could help determine whether the shallow magma ocean theory is plausible.

“Since the discovery of Morabito, planetary scientists have wondered how volcanoes were fed by lava beneath the Earth’s surface,” said Scott Bolton, Ph.D., principal investigator at Juno and a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute.

“Was there a shallow ocean of white-hot magma that fueled the volcano, or was the source more local?”

“We knew data from Juno’s two very close approaches could give us insight into how this beleaguered satellite actually works.”



Io’s arctic region was captured by NASA’s Juno on December 30, 2023, during the spacecraft’s 57th approach to the gas giant. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew very close to Io in December 2023 and February 2024, coming within about 1,500 km of the surface.

During its approach, Juno communicated with NASA’s Deep Space Network and acquired high-precision dual-frequency Doppler data. This data was used to measure Io’s gravity by tracking how it affects the spacecraft’s acceleration.

Combining these observations with archival Doppler data from NASA’s Galileo mission and ground-based telescopes, the researchers calculated how much Io is deformed by tidal forces.

This result is inconsistent with what would be expected if a shallow global magma ocean existed, suggesting that Io has a nearly solid mantle.

It is not yet known whether there are regions of magma deep within the moon.

The findings show that tidal forces do not necessarily create global magma oceans, which could have implications for our understanding of other moons such as Enceladus and Europa.

“Juno’s discovery that tidal forces don’t always produce global magma oceans not only prompts us to rethink what we know about Io’s interior,” Dr. Park said.

“It has implications for our understanding of other moons such as Enceladus and Europa, as well as exoplanets and super-Earths.”

“Our new findings provide an opportunity to rethink what we know about planet formation and evolution.”

The team’s paper published in this week’s magazine nature.

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RS Park others. Due to Io’s tidal reactions, shallow magma oceans do not form. nature published online on December 12, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08442-5

Source: www.sci.news

The huge magma flow in Iceland set a new speed record

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On February 8th, lava erupted near Grindavik, Iceland.

Iceland Civil Defense/Handout/Anadolu, via Getty Images

Prior to the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland, the influx of magma into the 15-kilometre-long fissure occurred at the highest rate of its kind ever observed anywhere in the world.

“Higher eruption rates can occur in very large eruptions,” he says.
Freistein Sigmundson at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. “But I don't know of any higher estimates for magma flowing into cracks in the surface.”

Sigmundsson is part of a team that is monitoring recent volcanic activity beneath Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula using ground-based sensors and satellites. It started when magma built up several kilometers beneath the Svartsengi region, the site of a geothermal power plant that supplies hot water to the tourist attraction Blue Lagoon Spa.

On November 10, 2023, a giant fissure several kilometers deep and 15 kilometers long formed nearby. When the magma opened, some of the accumulated magma flowed into it at a speed of 7,400 cubic meters per second, according to the researchers' calculations.

This is about 100 times faster than the magma flow that occurred during the 2021, 2022 and 2023 eruptions in the nearby Fagradalsfjall region, Sigmundsson said.

The magma inside the crack is at most 8 meters wide, so it can be visualized like a piece of paper, he says. This crack formed because Iceland is located on the boundary where the tectonic plates are moving apart.

On December 18, a so-called fissure eruption began along part of this terrain and lasted for three days. Another lava wave that lasted two days began on January 14, with some of the lava reaching the evacuated town of Grindavik.

Sigmundsson said the lava flow destroyed only a few buildings, but cracks in the ground caused extensive damage to roads and pipes, and created underground cavities.

On February 8, another eruption began a short distance from Grindavik. Lava from here flowed across pipes carrying hot water from the Svartsengi geothermal power plant. This means heating is cut off in some neighborhoods, and most buildings in Iceland rely on geothermal water for heating.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The First Tunnel into a Magma Chamber Could Tap into Endless Energy Sources

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Iceland is one of the most boring countries in the world. That’s a compliment, not an insult. The island nation is dotted with thousands of boreholes dug deep into the bedrock to extract geothermal energy. You’ll soon be joined by another team, but it’s never boring. “We are planning to drill into the magma chamber,” says Hjalti Pár Ingolsson from Reykjavík’s Geothermal Research Cluster (GEORG). “This is our first trip to the center of the Earth,” says his colleague Björn Sor Gudmundsson.

Well, not in the center. Some magma chambers (underground reservoirs of molten rock) lie just a few kilometers below the earth’s surface and are within reach of modern excavators. Sometimes magma leaks to the surface and erupts as lava. At the time this story went to press, that’s exactly what was beginning to have spectacular and devastating effects around the town of Grindavik in southern Iceland. The problem is that we usually don’t know where the magma chamber is. “No geophysical method has yet been proven to satisfactorily locate magma chambers,” he says. John Eichelberger At the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

But now Ingolfsson and his colleagues are in luck. They accidentally discover a magma chamber and are planning to do the unthinkable: to intentionally drill into it. This project is nothing short of making scientific history by providing the first direct opportunity to study the hidden liquid rock that Earth used to build its continents. On the way, it could also be…

Source: www.newscientist.com