Complex impact processes on the Moon’s farside recorded by Chang’e-6 low-Ti basalt

Thousands of craters on the lunar surface offer a unique perspective to investigate the impact process of the inner Solar System. However, the mid-late-stage impact history of the Moon since ~3.1 Ga remains poorly constrained due to the sample scarcity from this period exhibiting significant shock effects. Here, we present diverse shock metamorphism features in basalt clasts returned by the Chang’e-6 mission from a low-Ti mare unit on the lunar farside that formed approximately 2.8 billion years ago. High-pressure phases seifertite, stishovite, coesite, and maskelynite, as well as quartz cluster in a shock melt pocket and compositional oscillations in pyroxenes within these samples, reveal at least four distinct pressure−temperature−time paths, indicating complex impact processes on the lunar farside. The high peak pressures (~30−40 GPa) recorded in these samples are comparable with lunar meteorites, suggesting no significant difference in impact intensity between the Moon’s two hemispheres since its mid-evolutionary stage.