The Moon's diameter has contracted ~150 feet over the past few hundred million years due to interior cooling. This thermal contraction creates thrust faults across the lunar surface—essentially wrinkles in the Moon's crust where one section is pushed over another.
Apollo seismometers detected shallow moonquakes directly correlated with these fault lines, proving the Moon is tectonically active, just extremely slow. The cooling core causes the outer layers to compress and buckle, generating measurable seismic events.
This isn't ancient history—it's ongoing. The Moon is still thermally evolving, and those fault zones remain seismically active. For future lunar base planning, understanding these quake-prone regions is critical for structural safety. The Moon isn't the geologically dead rock we once assumed.
Apollo seismometers detected shallow moonquakes directly correlated with these fault lines, proving the Moon is tectonically active, just extremely slow. The cooling core causes the outer layers to compress and buckle, generating measurable seismic events.
This isn't ancient history—it's ongoing. The Moon is still thermally evolving, and those fault zones remain seismically active. For future lunar base planning, understanding these quake-prone regions is critical for structural safety. The Moon isn't the geologically dead rock we once assumed.