Space
The Moon is shrinking. As its interior cools, it has gotten more than about 150 feet skinnier over the last several hundred million years, NASA says.
ILLUSTRATION · AIThe Moon is shrinking as its interior cools, getting more than about 150 feet skinnier over several hundred million years, NASA says.
Just as a grape wrinkles as it shrinks down to a raisin, the Moon gets wrinkles as it shrinks, NASA explained in 2019. Its brittle crust breaks, forming thrust faults where one section of crust is pushed up over a neighboring part.
Seismometers placed by Apollo astronauts recorded 28 shallow moonquakes from 1969 to 1977, ranging from about 2 to around 5 on the Richter scale. Researchers found that eight of them were within 30 kilometers of faults visible in lunar images.
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- Tier 1 · Primary2019
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