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No 182W evidence for early Moon formation

Nature Geoscience volume 14, pages 714–715 (2021)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 13 September 2021

The Original Article was published on 29 July 2019

arising from M. M. Thiemens et al. Nature Geoscience https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0398-3 (2019)

The Moon-forming giant impact was probably the last major event in Earth’s accretion, so dating this event is critical to determine the timeline of terrestrial planet formation. Recently, Thiemens et al.1 used the short-lived 182Hf–182W system to argue that the Moon formed within the first 60 Myr of Solar System history. Here we demonstrate, however, that mixing processes during and after the giant impact modified the 182W compositions of the Earth and Moon, which hampers the use of the Hf–W system to date the Moon. Our results show that the lunar 182W record is fully consistent with a recently determined, younger age of the Moon of 142 ± 25 Myr after Solar System formation2.

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Fig. 1: Effect of late accretion on the BSE’s µ182W.
Fig. 2: Calculated µ182W difference between the Moon and the BSE before late accretion as a function of the late-accreted mass added to the Moon.

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Acknowledgements

Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), Project-ID 263649064–TRR 170. This is TRR 170 publication no. 111.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany

    Thomas S. Kruijer

  2. Institute für Geologische Wissenschaften, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Thomas S. Kruijer

  3. Institut für Planetologie, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Gregory J. Archer & Thorsten Kleine

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  1. Thomas S. Kruijer
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Contributions

T.S.K. and T.K. devised and conducted the study. All authors contributed towards the scientific interpretation and preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Thomas S. Kruijer.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Geoscience thanks Alan Brandon and Stephen Mojzsis for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Kruijer, T.S., Archer, G.J. & Kleine, T. No 182W evidence for early Moon formation. Nat. Geosci. 14, 714–715 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00820-2

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