GS Paper 1
Syllabus: Geography/ Awareness in space.
Source: The Print
Context: A team of scientists from Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), the United States, and Japan has found a unique group of ancient lunar basaltic meteorites, suggesting a new scenario for the origin of lunar basalts.
More about the findings:
- The Apollo, Luna, and Chang’E-5 missions have brought to Earth an extensive collection of mare basalts.
- Mare basalts are formed by the partial melting of the lunar mantle, made of mostly pyroxene and olivine
- Apollo mare basalts are highly rich in potassium, rare earth elements, and phosphorous known as Procellarum KREEP Terrane (PKT).
- KREEP is the acronym for a place that has deposits of potassium (chemical symbol – K), rare earth elements (REE), and phosphorus (chemical symbol – P).
- These are rich in radioactive elements that provide the heat to melt rocks resulting in KREEP-rich basalts.
- ISRO stated that the result shows that these basalts must be a result of low-pressure melting on the Moon, similar to those in other terrestrial bodies, such as Earth and Mars.
- They also reveal that these basalts originated from a cool, shallow, and compositionally distinct part of the lunar interior.
