A new study has presented evidence that as the Moon’s interior gradually cools and shrinks, it is causing moonquakes and faults. Some of these faults are being generated near the south pole of the Moon, not far from the landing site of India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission. NASA also plans to land the Artemis 3 mission in the region.
“Our modelling suggests that shallow moonquakes capable of producing strong ground shaking in the south polar region are possible from slip events on existing faults or the formation of new thrust faults,” said Tom Waters, lead author of the study published in The Planetary Science Journal.
According to Waters, these young thrust faults can cause sites to be active, causing more moonquakes and this could affect the stability of regions where NASA and other space agencies are planning to build permanent outposts. “Fault” in geology refers to broken fractures between two massive blocks of rock. These faults allow the blocks to move against each other, causing quakes and other geological activity.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, which is onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, detected many thousands of small and young thirst faults distributed in the lunar crust. They form cliff-like landforms that look like star-steps on the lunar surface. These scarps are formed when the contractional forces break the crust and push or thrust it on one side of the fault over the other side. The contraction is caused by the cooling of the Moon’s interior and tidal forces exerted by Earth, shrinking the natural satellite.
These faults are accompanied by shallow-depth moonquakes. Some were recorded by the Apollo Passive Seismic Network, which is a set of seismometers installed on the Moon by Apollo astronauts more than half a century back.
Shambhu Kumar is a science communicator, making complex scientific topics accessible to all. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
