Volatile compounds delivered by impacts are trapped in south pole craters because they function as what type of storage unit?
Answer
Natural deep freeze preserving specimens chemically unchanged
The extremely low temperatures within the Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) act as an unparalleled natural deep freeze. Volatile materials, such as water ice, that have been deposited over billions of years by impacting comets and asteroids become trapped within the lunar regolith there. Because these environments never experience temperatures high enough to cause sublimation or chemical alteration, the trapped volatiles remain chemically pristine, serving as ancient specimens perfectly preserved for scientific analysis.
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