Orbital data indicate that the youngest volcanic units on the Moon are basalt lavas in Oceanus Procellarum, a region with high levels of the heat-producing elements potassium, thorium, and uranium. The Chang'e-5 mission collected samples of these young lunar basalts and returned them to Earth for laboratory analysis. We measure an age of 1963 ± 57 Ma for these lavas and determine their chemical and mineralogical compositions. This age constrains the lunar impact chronology of the inner Solar System and the thermal evolution of the Moon. There is no evidence for high concentrations of heat-producing elements in the deep mantle of the Moon that generated these lavas, so alternate explanations are required for the longevity of lunar magmatism.

SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating was carried out for the Daohugou Biota near Ningcheng of Inner Mongolia and for lavas overlying or underlying salamander-bearing strata at Reshuitang in Lingyuan of West Liaoning. The results suggest that the Daohugou Biota occurred at an interval from 168 Ma to 164-152 Ma. Both the Daohugou Biota and the salamander-bearing fossil assemblage are the same biota and thus developed from 168 to 152 Ma, i.e. from late Middle Jurassic to the early Late Jurassic. The Daohugou Biota-bearing rocks, resting on the Jiulongshan Formation in disconformity and being overlain in unconformity by Late Jurassic Tuchengzi Formation and Early Cretaceous rocks containing the Jehol Biota, are mainly composed of volcanic-sedimentary rocks in a normal sequence. It is recommended that the Daohugou Biota and the related stratigraphy should be correlated with the Tiaojishan Formation (Lanqi Formation in West Liaoning) or its synchronous rocks. It is suggested that the Daohugou Biota and the Jehol Biota would be neither taken into one biota nor considered as the earliest elements of the Jehol Biota. The Daohugou Biota and the related rocks and the Yixian Formation were respectively formed in different periods of volcanic-sedimentary tectonics.

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We demonstrate enhancement of surface light extraction from two-dimensional photonic crystals (2D-PCs) on the electrical injected GaN-based light emitters. The effects of symmetry of PCs on light extraction were studied. 2.5 times enhancement of surface emission was obtained from the PCs with an octagonal symmetric quasicrystal lattice (8PQC) compared to that from a nonpatterned region. Additionally the surface emission from PCs with dodecagonal symmetric quasicrystal lattice (12PQC) exhibited about 1.7 and 1.4 times higher emission than regular PCs with triangular lattice and 8PQC, respectively. Consequently, the 12PQC provides a favorable consideration of 2D-PC in light extraction from light emitting diode.

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The Strandja Massif, northwestern Turkey, forms a link between the Balkan Zone of Bulgaria, which is correlated with the Variscan orogen in Europe, and the Pontides, where Cimmerian structures are prominent. Five fault-bounded tectonic units form the massif structure. (1) The Kırklareli Unit consists of the Paleozoic basement intruded by the Carboniferous to Triassic Kırklareli metagranites. It is unconformably overlain by Permian and Triassic metasediments. (2) The Vize Unit that is made of Neoproterozoic metasediments, which are intruded by Cambrian metagranites, and overlain by the pre-Ordovician molasse. Unconformably laying the Ordovician quartzites pass upward into quartz schists and then to alternating marble and chert of, possibly, latest Devonian age. Rocks of the Vize Unit are intruded by the late Carboniferous metagranites. The Vize Unit may be correlated with the passive continental margin of the Istanbul Zone. (3) The Mahya accretionary complex and (4) the paired Yavuzdere magmatic arc were formed in the Carboniferous. (5) Nappes consisting of the Jurassic dolomites and marbles thrust to the north in late Jurassic – early Cretaceous time. They occupy the highest structural position on all above-mentioned tectonic units. Tectonic subdivision of the Strandja Massif is supported by new 18 ages of magmatic and detrital zircons. The long duration of subduction-related magmatism in the region and its continuity in the Triassic contradicts with the widely accepted ideas about the dominance of the passive continental margin settings in the tectonic evolution of the Strandja Massif. The massif is interpreted as a fragment of the long-lived, Cambrian to Triassic Silk Road magmatic arc. At least since the late Paleozoic this arc evolved on the northern side of Paleo-Tethys.