Wednesday, 20 April 2011

What implications does younger volcanism have on the Moon's thermal evolution?

In the paper Evidence for basaltic volcanism on the Moon within the past 100 million years (Braden et al. 2014), suggest that features such as Ina (image below) represent a far more recent age of volcanism (relatively speaking, around 100 million years).



enter image description here



Image source: NASA Science News, where they have a different non-volcanic theory. However, this question is not about whether the features are volcanic or not.



From the Braden et al. article abstract:




The morphology of the features is also consistent with small basaltic eruptions that occurred significantly after the established cessation of lunar mare basaltic volcanism. Such late-stage eruptions suggest a long decline of lunar volcanism and constrain models of the Moon’s thermal evolution.




Assuming the latest models indicate volcanism as recent as within the 100 million years ago, what are the implications for lunar thermal history of younger volcanism?

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