The lunar core can be a major reservoir for volatile elements S, Se, Te and Sb

The Moon bears a striking compositional and isotopic resemblance to the bulk silicate Earth (BSE) for
many elements, but is considered highly depleted in many volatile elements compared to BSE due to
high-temperature volatile loss from Moon-forming materials in the Moon-forming giant impact and/
or due to evaporative loss during subsequent magmatism on the Moon. Here, we use high-pressure
metal-silicate partitioning experiments to show that the observed low concentrations of volatile
elements sulfur (S), selenium (Se), tellurium (Te), and antimony (Sb) in the silicate Moon can instead
reflect core-mantle equilibration in a largely to fully molten Moon. When incorporating the core as a
reservoir for these elements, their bulk Moon concentrations are similar to those in the present-day
bulk silicate Earth. This suggests that Moon formation was not accompanied by major loss of S, Se, Te,
Sb from Moon-forming materials, consistent with recent indications from lunar carbon and S isotopic
compositions of primitive lunar materials. This is in marked contrast with the losses of other volatile
elements (e.g., K, Zn) during the Moon-forming event. This discrepancy may be related to distinctly
different cosmochemical behavior of S, Se, Te and Sb within the proto-lunar disk, which is as of yet
virtually unconstrained.