Does our Moon exhibit recent tectonic activity? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the potential for our Moon to have exhibited recent tectonic activity despite its interior not being geologically active. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the processes responsible for tectonic activity on planetary bodies and what this could mean for the formation and evolution of planets and moons throughout the cosmos.
For the study, the researchers created the first global map of small mare ridges (SMRs) on the Moon, which are small, narrow tectonic ridges located within the lava plains on the Moon and are similar to lobate scarps, another frequently observed geologic formation on the Moon. They have been hypothesized to result from the Moon shrinking as it’s cooled over billions of years, with the top crust bucking under the pressure of compression.
Using a combination of lunar global mosaics and images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs), the researchers successfully identified and mapped more than 1,100 new SMRs across the nearside of the Moon. Through this, the researchers demonstrated these SMRs are geologically young compared to the surrounding regions and are widely distributed among the lunar volcanic plains.
Image of a small mare ridge on the Moon. (Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)
“Since the Apollo era, we’ve known about the prevalence of lobate scarps throughout the lunar highlands, but this is the first time scientists have documented the widespread prevalence of similar features throughout the lunar mare,” said Dr. Cole Nypaver, who is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Air and Space Museum and lead author of the study. “This work helps us gain a globally complete perspective on recent lunar tectonism on the moon, which will lead to a greater understanding of its interior and its thermal and seismic history, and the potential for future moonquakes.”
What new insight into the Moon’s tectonic activity will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: The Planetary Science Journal, EurekAlert!
