In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts stumbled upon the ‘Genesis Rock’ on the Moon: three decades later, scientists revealed its ancient origin

An international team of scientists from the United Kingdom and Germany has made significant progress in solving the mystery behind the origin of a type of volcanic rock unique to Earth’s natural satellite. Widely distributed across the Moon’s surface, these rocks have long represented one of the major puzzles in lunar geology. The discovery provides a better understanding of how the Moon evolved during its earliest stages and offers new clues for reconstructing its geological history.

The research, led by scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Münster, focuses on so-called high-titanium basalts. These rocks have attracted researchers’ attention since NASA’s Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, when astronauts brought samples of ancient, solidified lava back to Earth from the lunar surface. These samples contained unusually high concentrations of titanium.

Solving the mystery

For decades, one of the main questions has been how these magmas formed and, in particular, how they were able to reach the lunar surface. The issue was connected to their chemical and physical properties, including their relatively low density, which allowed these materials to rise and erupt approximately 3.5 billion years ago.

To solve the mystery, the researchers combined laboratory experiments conducted at extremely high temperatures with isotopic analyses of lunar samples. The scientists recreated conditions similar to those that may have existed deep within the Moon and studied the behavior of molten rocks resembling the titanium-rich basalts found on its surface.

The results made it possible to identify a key reaction that occurred deep inside the Moon. About 3.5 billion years ago, iron present in the magma exchanged elements with magnesium in the surrounding rocks. This interaction altered the chemical and physical properties of the molten material and ultimately produced the distinctive composition of these basalts.

The research also identified a kind of isotopic “fingerprint” in the rocks. Differences in the isotopes of certain elements provided evidence that the magma had reacted with solid materials inside the Moon before reaching the surface. This information has made it possible to directly connect the rocks’ present-day characteristics with processes that took place deep within the Moon billions of years ago.

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