The prospect of living on the moon is getting even more far-fetched by the day. For example, researchers published concerning findings in The Planetary Science Journal using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, finding that the Moon is shrinking and covered in over 10,000 visible faults that trigger moonquakes.
Study author Thomas R. Watters, a scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, found that our nighttime companion rock is basically shriveling up like an old grape. As its interior cools, the moon’s radius has contracted by about 148 feet over the past 400 to 800 million years. That is a very, very slow rate of contraction, about 0.1 micrometers a year, but the structural consequences are immense for anyone hoping to build a lunar dream home.
The Moon Is Slowly Shrinking, Triggering Thousands of Faults and Moonquakes
The Earth distributes 90 percent of the seismic activity along a neat network of tectonic plate boundaries. The Moon is surrounded by a giant, unbroken shell, so when the interior contracts and stress isn’t released along predictable boundaries, the shell cracks. Moonquakes can pop up anywhere, without warning, meaning you’ll never quite feel confident enough in your real estate selection.
This poses a theoretical threat to lunar colonization, but also a practical, very real threat to NASA’s Artemis missions, which had already identified potential landing spots that were sitting uncomfortably close to active fault zones. A tremor could trigger a landslide or damage mission infrastructure. The study offered a silver lining for anyone hoping to build lunar infrastructure one day: areas with the thickest crust had fewer faults, making them the safest places to set up camp.
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