The Earth's Moon Is Getting Smaller
- 5 years ago
The Earth's Moon Is
Getting Smaller A new study in Nature Geoscience says the astronomical body's crust is wrinkling. The change is caused by cooling on
the moon's interior and it not
having any tectonic plates. Over time, thousands of cliffs have been produced due to
this process. During a span of several hundred million years,
the moon is now
50 meters slimmer. As shrinking happens, quakes on the moon's faults have occurred. From the late 1960s to the mid-70s,
there were nearly 30 of them. The quakes are believed to
still be happening. According to Thomas Watters from the
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies,
the quakes can be powerful. Thomas Watters,
via CNN This is due to some quakes occurring when it was the most distant from Earth while in orbit.
Getting Smaller A new study in Nature Geoscience says the astronomical body's crust is wrinkling. The change is caused by cooling on
the moon's interior and it not
having any tectonic plates. Over time, thousands of cliffs have been produced due to
this process. During a span of several hundred million years,
the moon is now
50 meters slimmer. As shrinking happens, quakes on the moon's faults have occurred. From the late 1960s to the mid-70s,
there were nearly 30 of them. The quakes are believed to
still be happening. According to Thomas Watters from the
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies,
the quakes can be powerful. Thomas Watters,
via CNN This is due to some quakes occurring when it was the most distant from Earth while in orbit.