This article summarizes a paper published by UC Berkeley graduate student David Stegman in the journal Nature. Stegman hypothesizes that a blanket of dense material on the Moon's core initiated a brief period of rapid heat flux and core convection. According to the article, Stegman's research explains the ancient magnetized rocks on the Moon's surface, the lack of later convective activity, the lack of a present-day magnetic field on the Moon, as well as the origin of the Moon's flood basalts (maria).
