Two billion-year-old volcanism on the Moon from Chang'E-5 basalts.

The Moon has a magmatic and thermal history distinct from those of the terrestrial planets1. Radioisotope dating of lunar samples suggests that most lunar basaltic magmatism ceased by ca. 2.9–2.8 Ga (billion years ago)2,3, although younger basalts between 3 and 1 Ga have been suggested by crater-counting chronology, which has large uncertainties owing to the lack of returned samples for calibration4,5. Here, we report a precise Pb-Pb age of 2,030 ± 4 Ma (million years ago) for basalt clasts returned by the Chang’E-5 mission, and a 238U/204Pb ratio (µ value)6 of ~680 for a source that evolved through two stages of differentiation. This is the youngest crystallisation age ever reported for lunar basalts by radiometric method, extending the duration of lunar volcanism by ~800–900 million years. The µ value of the Chang’E-5 basalt mantle source is within the range of low-Ti and high-Ti basalts from Apollo sites (µ = ~300–1,000), but strikingly lower than those of KREEP (K, rare earth elements, and P) and high-Al basalts7 (µ = ~2,600–3,700), indicating that the Chang’E-5 basalts were produced by melting of a KREEP-poor source. The new age provides a pivotal calibration point for crater-counting chronology in the inner Solar System and sheds new light on the volcanic and thermal history of the Moon.