Sent in by Gary. At www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8307869/ … a couple of days ago we learned the moon could not have been formed by an impact as carbon had been detected on the surface. Now, we have a study that sticks to the mainstream mantra – and the moon was formed by a massive impact event. A lunar rock brought back by the Apollo mission has yielded a 'small grain' inside it that shows it had been heated to more than 4,172 degrees F. Such a temperature could only have occurred via a giant impact event we are assured. Yes, it does read 'a grain' rather than 'lots of grains' but the claim of the scientists involved is crystal clear. The creation of the moon involved a violent meteoritic episode that caused its outer layers to melt – and then reform as rock. Strangely, this report coincides with a Thunderbolts forum piece last week that discussed the plasticity of rocks. One of the commenters said it would be useful if this subject was tested in the lab – putting an electric charge into solid rock in order to find out how much voltage was required for the rock to become viscuous.
The article goes on to say if this was happening on the moon it must also have been happening on earth – but we have no evidence of it because of later sedimentary layering. They used electron backscatter diffraction in a laboratory to arrive at their conclusion. Later, we learn the small grain came from a rock found in an impact basin on the moon that was 100s of km in diameter – and radiometric dating determined the grain was 4.3 billion years old. Was it an impact crater?