Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

PLANETARY SCIENCE

The Earth–Moon late-accretion conundrum

The distribution of iron-loving elements between the mantles of the Moon and Earth may differ from established belief, suggest two studies that determine the hafnium–tungsten ratio and sulfide–silicate melt partitioning of elements in the lunar mantle.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Lunar basalts are invaluable probes of the Moon’s silicate mantle composition.

References

  1. Day, J. M. D. & Walker, R. J. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 423, 114–124 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Kruijer, T. S. & Kleine, T. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 475, 15–24 (2017).

  3. Canup, R. M. Science 338, 1052–1055 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Hosono, N., Karato, S.-I., Makino, J. & Saitoh, T. R. Nat. Geosci. 12, 418–423 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Zhu, M.-H. et al. Nature 571, 226–229 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bottke, W. F., Walker, R. J., Day, J. M. D., Nesvorny, D. & Elkins-Tanton, L. Science 330, 1527–1530 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Thiemens, M. M., Sprung, P., Fonseca, R. O. C., Leitzke, F. P. & Münker, C. Nat. Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0398-3 (2019).

  8. Brenan, J. M., Mungall, J. E. & Bennett, N. R. Nat. Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0426-3 (2019).

  9. Becker, H. et al. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 70, 4528–4550 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Fischer, R. A. & Nimmo, F. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 499, 257–265 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Walker, R. J. et al. Chem. Geol. 411, 125–142 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Day, J. M. D. Am. Mineral. 103, 1734–1740 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Hauri, E. H., Saal, A. E., Rutherford, M. J. & Van Orman, J. A. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 409, 252–264 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philipp Gleißner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gleißner, P. The Earth–Moon late-accretion conundrum. Nat. Geosci. 12, 683–684 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0445-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0445-0

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing