Fire Fountains of the Ancient Moon Explained

Rather, the moon's surface was hot and active, and magma often bubbled up from below and broke the surface in fiery fountains — like a molten-hot version of Old Faithful. But now, scientists may have found a possible culprit for the molten explosions: carbon monoxide. "The carbon is the one that is producing the large spectacle," said Alberto Saal, a geologist at Brown University in Providence and co-author of the new study.