Oxygen isotopic evidence for vigorous mixing during the Moon-forming giant impact

Edward D. Young*, Issaku E. Kohl, Paul H. Warren, David C. Rubie, Seth A. Jacobson, Alessandro Morbidelli

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

177 Scopus citations

Abstract

Earth and the Moon are shown here to have indistinguishable oxygen isotope ratios, with a difference in D?17 O of -1 ± 5 parts per million (2 standard error). On the basis of these data and our new planet formation simulations that include a realistic model for primordial oxygen isotopic reservoirs, our results favor vigorous mixing during the giant impact and therefore a high-energy, high-angular-momentum impact. The results indicate that the late veneer impactors had an average D?17 O within approximately 1 per mil of the terrestrial value, limiting possible sources for this late addition of mass to the Earth-Moon system.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)493-496
Number of pages4
JournalScience
Volume351
Issue number6272
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 29 2016

Funding

We are grateful to NASA Johnson Space Center for approving use of the Apollo samples for this study. E.D.Y. acknowledges support from a grant from the NASA Emerging Worlds program (NNX15AH43G). D.C.R., S.A.J., and A.M. acknowledge support from the European Research Council Advanced Grant "ACCRETE" (contract 290568). Development of the Panorama instrument was supported by the Deep Carbon Observatory (Sloan Foundation), NSF, U.S. Department of Energy, Shell, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the University of California, Los Angeles. The complete data table for this study can be found in the supplementary materials.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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