A new research has suggested that carbon monoxide was responsible for eruption of volcanic fire fountains off the lunar surface. A study was conducted by scientists from Brown University and the Carnegie Institution for Science, identifying the volatile gas that drove those eruptions.

Fire fountains are often seen in Hawaii; these are a kind of eruptions that require mixing of volatiles with the erupting lava. AS the lava rise from the depths, volatile compounds begin to turn into gas.

Expansion of that gas results into the blast of lava into the air once it reaches the surface. It's very similar to taking the lid of a shaken bottle of soda.

Efforts were being made for years to figure out what gas produced these sorts of eruptions on the moon, said Alberto Saal, associate professor of earth, environmental, and planetary sciences at Brown and corresponding author of the new research. He added that it was very difficult to identify the gas, give that is was long gone.

Findings of the study have been published in Nature Geoscience. The study helped the researchers understand that lava associated with lunar fire fountains had significant amounts of carbon. With its rise from the lunar depths, carbon combined with oxygen to ensure production of good amounts of carbon monoxide (CO) gas.

"Most of the carbon would have degassed deep under the surface. Other volatiles like hydrogen degassed later, when the magma was much closer to the surface and after the lava began breaking up into small globules", said Saal. He added that the study clearly suggested carbon played a significant role in the process in its early stages.