Evidences of relatively new volcanic flows on the Moon.

It is generally believed that the Moon became internally dead ~1 b.y. from the present, and only old (⇔? 1 b.y.) volcanic flows forming largely the mare basins are known to occur. The old volcanic landforms stand largely obliterated and flows studded with impact craters. However, recent findings have indicated global presence of young thrust faults on the Moon, escape of gases from the interior and also predicted the presence of partially molten lower lunar mantle and core. Here, we have used high-resolution datasets from NASA's LRO, Kaguya of JAXA and ISRO's Chandrayan-1 missions to examine the characteristics and origin of multiple relatively fresh, coaxial, superposed viscous flows spotted inside the Lowell crater on the far side of the Moon. Various considerations apparently rule out the possibility of these melts being derived from nearby areas. An associated likely source crater and tectonic structures (a fault and a fracture) of two different ages but emanating from the same crater and affecting different flows have also been located -- exhibiting tectono-volcanic relationship. These features provide evidences of likely volcanic activity in the region not too far in the past, are consistent with recent results that the Moon may not be internally dead, and thus have implications to the thermal history and present-day geologic nature of the Moon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]