Long considered to be geologically inactive, our 4.6-billion-year-old moon is showing signs of tectonic activity via seismometers deployed between 1969 and 1972 during the NASA Apollo program. Although some “moonquakes” have been recorded near cliff-like fault scarps on the surface, they may be caused by the irregular gravitational effects of orbiting the more massive Earth or extreme temperature differences created by sunlight in the vacuum of space. Employing more sensitive equipment has been proposed for future missions to assist in choosing potential colonization sites.

This article appears in the August 2019 issue of Natural Awakenings.