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Distribution of lunar surface water dependent on latitude and regolith maturity

Nature Geoscience volume 18, pages 1097–1102 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Water on the surface of the Moon is a key factor in tracing lunar surface processes and represents a potential future resource for lunar exploration. Samples from the Apollo and Luna missions provide constraints on the content and possible origin of this water, but represent only low latitudes on the Moon’s nearside. Information about the lunar farside has been restricted to remote sensing observations and thus the global distribution and origin of lunar surface water are still debated. Here we performed laboratory analyses of samples from the lunar farside at mid-latitudes returned by the Chang’e-6 mission. We find that the samples have very low δD values (as low as −983‰) and high water contents (up to 1.7 wt%) in the topmost layers of grains, indicating that solar-wind implantation is the primary source. The water contents are comparable to those reported for Chang’e-5 samples from mid-latitudes on the nearside, but nearly double those of Apollo samples. Infrared reflectance spectra further reveal that the bulk Chang’e-6 samples exhibit stronger OH/H2O features and higher maturity than Chang’e-5 samples, despite both showing similar water content profiles with depth. These findings suggest that the distribution of water on the lunar surface is strongly dependent on latitude, with the bulk water content also depending on regolith maturity. Our findings imply that lunar surface water may be more abundant in highly mature regolith in high-latitude regions.

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Fig. 1: Distribution of lunar sampling sites.
Fig. 2: Infrared spectra of the Chang’e-6 bulk lunar samples.
Fig. 3: Depth profiles of the water content in lunar soil particles from different latitudes.
Fig. 4: Water content and hydrogen isotope ratios of Chang’e-6 samples compared with Apollo and Chang’e-5 lunar samples.

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Data availability

All data generated in this study are included in the Article and Supplementary Information. All of the data for this paper are also available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.27276420) (ref. 51). Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

The Chang’e-6 lunar samples were provided by the China National Space Administration. The Chang’e-2 Digital Orthophoto Map data used in this work were processed and produced by the Ground Research and Application System of China's Lunar and Planetary Exploration Program. We sincerely thank R. Ge and J. Wang from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, for their valuable assistance in interpreting the Mössbauer spectrum. This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant no. 42422407 (to H.L.), grant no. 42241106 (to Y.W. and H.L.), grant no. 42230206 (to Y.L. and H.-C.T.) and grant no. 42422301 (to H.-C.T.), the key research programme of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences under grant no. IGGCAS-202401 (to Y.L.) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under grant no. 2023071 (to H.L.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Planetary Science and Frontier Technology, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Honglei Lin, Rui Chang, Wei Yang, Heng-Ci Tian, Jialong Hao, Liyu Shan, Huaiyu He, Wei Lin, Yangting Lin & Yong Wei

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Honglei Lin, Liyu Shan, Wei Lin, Yangting Lin & Yong Wei

  3. Key Laboratory of Space Active Opto-Electronics Technology, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Rui Xu, Jinning Li & Zhiping He

  4. Center for Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, China

    Hong Tang

  5. China Academy of Aerospace System and Innovation, Beijing, China

    Xiaojing Zhang

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Contributions

H.L. and H.-C.T. conceived the study. H.L., R.C., R.X., J.L. and Z.H. conducted spectral measurements. H.-C.T., J.H. and L.S. carried out NanoSIMS measurements. H.L. and H.-C.T. performed the data processing. Y.L., Y.W., H.-C.T., H.L., W.Y., H.T., X.Z., W.L. and H.H. interpreted the results. Y.L. and Y.W. supervised the study. H.L. and H.-C.T. wrote the paper, with input from all co-authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Heng-Ci Tian, Yangting Lin or Yong Wei.

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Nature Geoscience thanks the anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Tamara Goldin, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 The maturity of the Chang’e-6 soil samples.

a, The Mössbauer spectrum of ~180 mg Chang’e-6 lunar soil. b, the estimated Is/FeO values based on the linear relationship between Fe0/FeO and Is/FeO of lunar mare soils50. The Chang’e-5 and Apollo data compiled in Qian et al.50 are shown for comparison.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 2 The Chang’e-6 soil particles used for NanoSIMS analysis.

a, Backscattered electron (BSE) images of three representative Chang’e-6 soil particles (pyroxene, plagioclase and glass), with yellow squares showing the NanoSIMS analysis pits. The other analyzed grains are given in Supplementary Fig. 1. Agglutinate-like material, splash melts, microcraters and adhered tiny particles can be observed on the grain surfaces. b, Raman spectrum of the Chang’e-6 lunar particles. The Raman points were located within the craters produced by the NanoSIMS. Typical peaks of pyroxene and plagioclase are marked in the diagrams. Since olivine grains are rare in soils, these three phases studied in this work are the major components of the Chang’e-6 lunar soils according to the study of physical properties and petrographic characteristics of Chang’e-6 lunar samples26.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Water-content calibration line and the IMF values.

a, Calibration line for H2O content determined from four standards. The Kovdor apatite (H2O = 0.98 ± 0.07%, δD = −66 ± 21‰; ref. 45), Durango apatite (H2O = 0.0478%, δD = −120 ± 5‰; ref. 46), a MORB glass reference material SWIFT MORB glass (H2O = 0.258%, δD = −73 ± 2‰47), and an olivine reference material San Carlos olivine (H2O = 1.4 ppm48) were used for calibration. KOV: Kovdor apatite; SWIFT MORB refers to a glass standard; DAP: Durango apatite; SCOL: San Carlos olivine. Data are presented as mean values ± error. b, Instrumental mass fractionation (IMF) values for KOV apatite, SWIFT MORB glass and Durango apatite. Data are presented as mean values ± 2 SE. The dashed lines and gray field denote the average value and two standard deviations. We used the IMF value of SWIFT MORB glass for the calibration.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 Water-content depth profiles for the Chang’e-6 lunar particles.

Most of the grains show high water contents in the shallow depth (< 200 nm), and then decrease with the depth to the grain interior (~ 1μm).

Source data

Extended Data Table 1 Water content and hydrogen isotopic compositions of the Chang’e-6 lunar soil samples analyzed by NanoSIMS
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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Supplementary Figs. 1–7.

Supplementary Data 1 (download XLSX )

Source data for Supplementary Figs. 2, 3, 6 and 7.

Source data

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Lin, H., Chang, R., Xu, R. et al. Distribution of lunar surface water dependent on latitude and regolith maturity. Nat. Geosci. 18, 1097–1102 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01819-9

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