Lunar Volcanism in the Time of the Dinosaurs!

Photos from NASA Orbiter show lunar volcanic activity during the Cretaceous Period

Post Author - Ellis Nolan

The T-Rex just can’t catch a break! New data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests the Moon might have had active volcanoes during the time of the dinosaurs.

Scientists have known about volcanism on the moon since 1969, but it was believed that lava stopped flowing on the lunar surface around a billion years ago. That is, until the Apollo 15 astronauts photographed an odd-looking volcanic deposit in 1971. The deposit, named “Ina,” appeared to be much younger than any other deposit on the moon, which led scientists to believe volcanic activity could have occurred on the moon much more recently (geologically speaking). However, Ina was not visible from the Earth, and so further research was stifled.

Flash forward to 2009, NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (known as the LRO), a spacecraft capable of capturing visible and ultraviolet images, to help scientists conduct different studies of the moon. In a recent study of photographs from the LRO, scientists found about 70 deposits similar to Ina. Not only that, but the numerous deposits are relatively spread out, suggesting that this was not an isolated burst of volcanism, but demonstrative of a differing geological history.

Preparation work being done on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

However, the question still remains: how old are these deposits? The scientists in the study used information from lunar soil samples and the size of the deposits to make estimates. Three are thought to have formed less than 100 million years ago, and Ina itself might have formed less than 50 million years ago. To give an idea of the scale of that difference, around a billion years ago (when it was originally thought that the moon’s volcanism stopped) was the beginning of multicellular life on Earth, whereas 100 million years ago was the middle of the Cretaceous Period!

This new evidence has more even implications beyond what dinosaurs saw in the night sky—scientists will have to rewrite the book on lunar geography, as it means the mantle of the moon was much hotter for much longer than previously thought. Safe to say, even if the dinosaurs could have gone to the moon, they probably wouldn’t have liked what they found.

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