Widespread hematite at high latitudes of the Moon

Shuai Li; Paul G Lucey; Abigail A Fraeman; Andrew R Poppe; Vivian Z Sun; Dana M Hurley; Peter H Schultz

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aba1940

Widespread hematite at high latitudes of the Moon

Sci Adv. 2020 Sep 2;6(36):eaba1940. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba1940. Print 2020 Sep.

Authors

Shuai Li¹, Paul G Lucey², Abigail A Fraeman³, Andrew R Poppe⁴, Vivian Z Sun³, Dana M Hurley⁵, Peter H Schultz⁶

Affiliations

¹ Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. shuaili@hawaii.edu njushuaili@gmail.com.
² Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
³ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
⁴ Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁵ Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD 20723, USA.
⁶ Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.

Abstract

Hematite (Fe₂O₃) is a common oxidization product on Earth, Mars, and some asteroids. Although oxidizing processes have been speculated to operate on the lunar surface and form ferric iron-bearing minerals, unambiguous detections of ferric minerals forming under highly reducing conditions on the Moon have remained elusive. Our analyses of the Moon Mineralogy Mapper data show that hematite, a ferric mineral, is present at high latitudes on the Moon, mostly associated with east- and equator-facing sides of topographic highs, and is more prevalent on the nearside than the farside. Oxygen delivered from Earth's upper atmosphere could be the major oxidant that forms lunar hematite. Hematite at craters of different ages may have preserved the oxygen isotopes of Earth's atmosphere in the past billions of years. Future oxygen isotope measurements can test our hypothesis and may help reveal the evolution of Earth's atmosphere.

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