Scientists Detect Earth-Equivalent Amount of Water Within the Moon

[Whoa_Nelly]

ScienceDaily (May 26, 2011) — There is water inside the moon -- so much, in fact, that in some places it rivals the amount of water found within Earth.

The finding from a scientific team including Brown University comes from the first-ever measurements of water in lunar melt inclusions. Those measurements show that some parts of the lunar mantle have as much water as Earth's upper mantle.

Lunar melt inclusions are tiny globules of molten rock trapped within crystals that are found in volcanic glass deposits formed during explosive eruptions. The new finding, published this week in Science Express, shows lunar magma water contents 100 times higher than previous studies have suggested.

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"The bottom line," said Saal, an author on the Science Express paper and the principal investigator on the research grants, "is that in 2008, we said the primitive water content in the lunar magmas should be similar to the water content in lavas coming from the Earth's depleted upper mantle. Now, we have proven that is indeed the case."





http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110526141400.htm

[sudopod]

1. Awesome sauce. nt