Hydrogen Isotopes in Lunar Volcanic Glasses and Melt Inclusions Reveal a Carbonaceous Chondrite Heritage

Abstract

Common Water The Moon has been traditionally considered bone-dry, but in recent years a number of studies have shown that during mantle melting, the lunar mantle had as much water as Earth's upper mantle. Saal et al. (p. 1317 , published online 9 May; see the cover) measured the isotopic composition of hydrogen dissolved in volcanic glass and olivine-hosted melt inclusions recovered from the Moon by the Apollo 15 and 17 missions. Lunar magmatic water was indistinguishable from the bulk water in carbonaceous chondrites and similar to terrestrial water, implying a common origin for the water contained in the interiors of Earth and the Moon.