One of the most recent geological issues that have brought to the attention of the public this year across the globe is the shrinking and quaking of the earth’s Moon slowly as times goes by. This can be attributed to the study conducted and published by NASA, the study consist of the photos collected by Lunar Orbiter of NASA together with important seismic information collected during the Apollo astronauts over the past decade. This paper will consider three articles that published the findings of the study conducted and what it means to the entire globe.
According to Strickland (2019), in an article published in the Cable News Network, the Moon is shrinking and is causing quakes in doing so. The Moon, unlike the earth, does not have tectonic plates; this has resulted in its interior to cool over the past 100,000,000 years. The cooling of the interior has brought about the wrinkling of the surface of the Moon as it shrinks. According to the author of the article, when compared with the skin of an ordinary shrinking grape as it changes to raisin, the crust of the Moon starts to break. That results in cliffs known as faults. Earth’s Moon is currently fifty meters less than it was millions of years ago as a result of this particular process.
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Today, there exists over a thousand cliffs spread across the surface of the Moon averaging to several miles in length and ten yards in height (Strickland, 2019) . Since 2009, almost three thousand five hundred photos have been taken by the Lunar Orbiter. The researcher further compared the position of several epicenters of the respective moonquakes and the images of thrust faults. About 8 of the quakes are due to activities along the faults. The researchers highlighted that the Apollo seismometers show the shrinking of the Moon. The earthquakes are continuously occurring on the surface of the Moon, and this implies that the Moon is actively changing over time.
According to data from NASA, the Moon is slowly shrinking, and at the same time shaking as it does (Griffin, 2019) . Over the past ten years, scientists and researchers have found out that as the interior of the Moon cools, it is dried up like a raisin. This leaves it riven with numerous cliffs that are known as thrust faults, which are then marked over the surface of the Moon. New study and analysis based on the data from missions conducted by NASA suggest that the earth's Moon is still shrinking even today. As the Moon is shrinking, it experiences numerous quakes along those faults, with the rocks shaking at the cliffs.
According to Griffin (2019), researchers have compared the entire process of the Moon shrinking to how a grape wrinkles up. The vine eventually wrinkles up adding lines as it cools from inside and shrinks. Unlike the skin of the grape, the Moon's crust around it is not able to stretch and is then brittle, forcing it to break as the process of shrinking occurs. The thrust faults are formed when the crust of the Moon moves around, as well as when one segment of the Moon's crust is pushed over the other. The coats tend to form unusual cliffs that can be observed from the surface of the Moon to be standing ten yards tall and a few miles in length. The findings were possible due to the establishment of a particular algorithm that processes seismic data that assisted in the understanding of the moonquakes by providing a better comprehension regarding where the quakes are actually from.
According to Rice (2019), the Moon is shrinking and quaking as per the new study from NASA. Scientists brought to the attention of the public that the Moon is shrinking and in doing so, it is resulting in numerous moonquakes which have been realized. For the scientists to detect the moonquakes, they reviewed the data collected by Apollo mission and astronauts in the 1960s as well as 1970s together with the new data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of NASA. The study indicates that just as any grape wrinkles as it is shrinking down to a raisin, the Moon is shrinking up as it is shrinking. Unlike the grape's skin, the surface of the Moon's crust is brittle. Hence, the crust of the Moon breaks as it shrinks, creating cliffs known as faults. The analysis of the information provides reliable proof that the flaws remain active and are causing quakes with the Moon slowly cooling and shrinking.
These findings demonstrate the need for the relevant bodies and agencies to send astronauts back to the Moon to confirm and find out more on the geology of the Moon. With a more advanced network of seismometers, the scientists can achieve great strides in the attempt of clearly understanding this particular aspect of geology. The data from the Apollo mission and program of many years ago is still useful for scientists currently. The current advancement in space technology offers a promising future in the tasks to the Moon.
References
Griffin, A., (2019, May 16). The Moon is Shrinking and Shaking, NASA says. The Independent Newsletter .https://www.independent.co.uk/lifestyle/gadgets-and-tech/news/moon-shrinking-NASA-moonquakes-space-crust-lunar-surface-a8911881.html
Rice, D. (2019, May 14). The shrinking and quaking of the Moon. USA TODAY .https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/13/moon-shrinking-and-quaking-new-study-reviews-apollo-era-data/1188571001/
Strickland, A., (2019, May 28). The shrinking and trembling of the Moon. Cables New Network . https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/13/world/moon-shrinking-quakes-scn/index.html
