Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt collecting a soil sample, his spacesuit coated with dust. Credit: NASA
Unlike tidal flexing in the Moon’s interior, moonquakes result from temperature changes in the lunar crust . The airless environment on the Moon essentially means that heat from the Sun is not retained, nor does sunlight lead to the gradual warming of the surface. As a result, the crust is heated to temperatures of up to 120 °C during the peak of the day and drops to a low of -133 °C at night. This causes the crust to expand and contract rapidly, triggering small seismic events.
The researchers were able to triangulate the source of the activity and found that the morning tremors were coming a few hundred meters away from seismometers – from the Apollo 17 lunar lander itself! Every morning, as sunlight reached the vehicle, its surface would expand, causing vibrations in the ground that were detected by the seismic array.
. “Every five to six minutes, another one, over a period of five to seven Earth hours. They were incredibly regular and repeating.”Artemis Program . Though thermal quakes are too small to be felt by anyone on the lunar surface, these findings provide vital data that could inform the design of future landers and equipment. It could also inform the structure of future bases, like the
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