The end-Permian Emeishan Large Igneous Province (ELIP) in SW China is widely accepted to have formed by mantle plume activities, forming voluminous flood basalts and rare picrites. Although many studies were performed on the petrogenesis and tectonic setting, the detailed conditions and processes within the magma chamber(s) remain unsolved. In this study, we studied the sector-/oscillatory-zoned clinopyroxene (Cpx) phenocrysts and performed Cpx-liquid thermobarometric calculation to constrain the physicochemical processes within the magma chambers. The results show that Cpx phenocrysts from the high-Mg basalts were crystallized at 4–27 (average 17) km, whilst those from the low-Mg basalt were crystallized at 0–23 (average 9) km depth. The sector and oscillatory Cpx zoning in the high-Mg basalts show that the magma had experienced undercooling and multistage recharge events in the deep-staging chamber(s). The magma replenishments may have eventually led to the eruption of high-Mg basalts, and magma ascent to the upper crust for further fractionation to form the low-Mg basalts and mafic intrusions.

Tectonic features on the Moon can reflect the state of stress during the formation of the structure, and sinuous rilles can provide further insight into the tectonic-thermal evolution of the Moon. Manual visual interpretation is the primary method for extracting these linear structures due to their complex morphology. However, extracting these features from the vast amount of lunar remote sensing data requires significant time and effort from researchers, especially for small-scale tectonic features, such as wrinkle ridges, lobate scarps, and high-relief ridges. In order to enhance the efficiency of linear structure detection, this paper conducts research on the automatic detection method of linear structures using sinuous rilles as an example case. In this paper, a multimodal semantic segmentation method, “Sinuous Rille Network (SR-Net)”, for detecting sinuous rilles is proposed based on DeepLabv3+. This method combines advanced techniques such as ECA-ResNet and dynamic feature fusion. Compared to other networks, such as PSPNet, ResUNet, and DeepLabv3+, SR-Net demonstrates superior precision (95.20%) and recall (92.18%) on the multimodal sinuous rille test set. The trained SR-Net was applied in detecting lunar sinuous rilles within the range of 60°S to 60°N latitude. A new catalogue of sinuous rilles was generated based on the results of the detection process. The methodology proposed in this paper is not confined to the detection of sinuous rilles; with further improvements, it can be extended to the detection of other linear structures.

Impact craters serve as recorders of lunar evolutionary history, and determining the stratigraphic ages of craters is crucial. However, the age of many craters on the Moon remains undetermined. The morphology of craters is closely related to their stratigraphic ages. In the study, we systematically and quantitatively analyzed seven morphological parameters of 432 impact craters with known stratigraphic ages (Copernican, Eratosthenian, Imbrian), including crater depth, wall width, wall height, rim height, irregularity, volume, and roughness, as well as rock abundance. The study provided a range of morphological parameters for craters from the Copernican, Eratosthenian, and Imbrian. Additionally, we derived power law relationships between five morphological parameters and crater diameter, excluding irregularity and roughness. Furthermore, the transitional crater diameters from simple to complex crater morphology were determined for the Copernican and Eratosthenian, approximately 13 km and 15 km, respectively. These results suggest systematic differences in the lunar regolith in different stratigraphic ages. For impact craters of the same diameter, as crater age increases, irregularity tends to be greater, while crater depth, wall width, wall height, rim height, volume, roughness, and rock abundance tend to be smaller. Therefore, in cases where the diameter is determined, the actual values of morphological parameters and rock abundance can be used to constrain the stratigraphic age information of craters of an unknown age.

The specific duration between the impact event and subsequent volcanic flows is highly variable based on previous works. The method of crater size-frequency distribution (CSFD) has been previously used to date the basalt in Orientale Basin, which yielded inconsistent resultant Absolute Model Age (AMA) ranges. The inconsistency may be attributed to the choice of counting area and identified superposed craters. In this study, we integrated the Chang’E-2 (CE-2) imaging data (7 m/pix) and the IIM and 20 m CE-2 DTMS data, re-divided Mare Orientale, and re-estimated the age of the basalts there. The ages revealed that (1) the central basalts had multiphase eruptions, beginning at 3.77 Ga (30 My after the impact event) with the longest duration of 1.51 Gy; (2) the edge basalts have a similar features as the central basalts, beginning at 3.75–3.50 Ga (50–300 My after the impact) with the longest duration of 0.67 Gy. Compared with the basalts along the basinal margin, the central basalts have higher Ti but lower Mg^# contents, consistent with the basaltic magma fractionation trend. Spatial distribution characteristics indicate that the basalt eruption occurred in the impact direction upstream and in the center, but almost absent in the impact direction downstream. Accordingly, we speculate that the longevity of the lunar mare basaltic volcanism was affected by gravity changes, material balance, and other post-impact processes.

Reiner Gamma is a potential target for low-orbiting spacecraft or even surface-landed missions in the near future. Unfortunately, thus far, no comprehensive low-altitude (below 20 km) or surface measurements of the magnetic field, magnetic source and plasma environment have been made post-Apollo to complement and complete our understanding of the solar wind interaction with lunar magnetic anomalies and swirl formation. Acquiring the detailed geological knowledge of the Reiner Gamma region is significant for the above scientific targets. In this study, the following research work in the lunar Reiner Gamma magnetic anomaly region was carried out for the regional geological investigation: (1) topographic and geomorphologic analysis; (2) element, mineral, and sequence analysis; and (3) a 1:10,000 regional geological map analysis. Our work helps define measurement requirements for possible future low-orbiting or surface-landed missions to the Reiner Gamma area or similarly magnetized regions of the lunar surface.

We conducted a detailed study using multi-source data to date the mare activity and lobate scarp formation within the Jules Verne crater on the Moon. In previous studies, the Jules Verne crater has been classified as a pre-Nectarian impact crater. Our analysis indicates that it has an absolute model age (AMA) of ${4.21}_{-0.034}^{+0.032}$ Ga. After its formation, a magmatic intrusion event created floor fractures, followed by two basaltic eruption events—one at 3.4 Ga and another at 2.6 Ga. Subsequently, around 1.4 billion years ago, lunar seismic activity likely took place in this region, resetting the surface ages of the crater floor fractures and surrounding areas, as evidenced by the scarp.