Are there earthquakes on the Moon?Yes. they are called Moonquakes!, page 1

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Topic started on 18-11-2011 @ 12:38 PM by diamondsmith

Yes there are earthquakes on the moon, NASA say's.!

TextMarch 15, 2006: NASA astronauts are going back to the moon and when they get there they may need quake-proof housing. That's the surprising conclusion of Clive R. Neal, associate professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame after he and a team of 15 other planetary scientists reexamined Apollo data from the 1970s. "The moon is seismically active," he told a gathering of scientists at NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) meeting in League City, Texas, last October.

Right: Buzz Aldrin deploys a seismometer in the Sea of Tranquillity.

TextAnd what did they reveal? There are at least four different kinds of moonquakes: (1) deep moonquakes about 700 km below the surface, probably caused by tides; (2) vibrations from the impact of meteorites; (3) thermal quakes caused by the expansion of the frigid crust when first illuminated by the morning sun after two weeks of deep-freeze lunar night; and (4) shallow moonquakes only 20 or 30 kilometers below the surface.

The first three were generally mild and harmless. Shallow moonquakes on the other hand were doozies. Between 1972 and 1977, the Apollo seismic network saw twenty-eight of them; a few "registered up to 5.5 on the Richter scale," says Neal. A magnitude 5 quake on Earth is energetic enough to move heavy furniture and crack plaster.

source(science.nasa.gov...

edit on 18-11-2011 by diamondsmith because: Moonquakes

reply posted on 18-11-2011 @ 12:46 PM by SixX1874

reply to post by diamondsmith

Though they are a common occurrence on Earth and the Moon, I think I might be sweatin' a bit if I experienced a moon quake, cause it something breaks your stranded with no air, and no way off.

reply posted on 18-11-2011 @ 01:36 PM by Illustronic

What would a 5.5 quake be like in 1/6th earth gravity? Probably about 1/6th the effect as a 5.5 has here. A quake shakes things, gravity brings them down.

reply posted on 18-11-2011 @ 02:30 PM by BrokenCircles

reply to post by SixX1874

Originally posted by SixX1874

I think I might be sweatin' a bit if I experienced a moon quake, cause it something breaks your stranded with no air, and no way off.

BUT
You don't have to worry about anything falling, and crushing you.

(1) deep moonquakes about 700 km below the surface, probably caused by tides

What tides?

reply posted on 18-11-2011 @ 02:41 PM by Illustronic

Originally posted by BrokenCircles
reply to post by SixX1874

(1) deep moonquakes about 700 km below the surface, probably caused by tides

What tides?

Gravitational tides, from the earth and the sun, also known as tidal force.

Gravity tides

reply posted on 18-11-2011 @ 03:04 PM by BrokenCircles

reply to post by Illustronic

Thanks. Obviously, I didn't know that. Only thought I had was of the oceans, and that didn't make sense.

Curious: Is that part of the reason that we only see the one side?
Gravitational tides keep it from spinning?

reply posted on 18-11-2011 @ 03:09 PM by Devino

reply to post by Illustronic

I would think a 5.5 quake should be the same. Vibrational energy is different from gravitational energy. Earthquakes are not a matter of up and down motions but are rather waves of energy that roll through the surface. The density difference between Earth and the Moon might effect the wave lengths but probably not the amplitude. That's my guess anyway.

reply to post by BrokenCircles

(1) deep moonquakes about 700 km below the surface, probably caused by tides

What tides?

Remember that tides here on Earth are caused by the Moon's gravity. It effects not just water but Earth's crust as well. Water is an easily moveable medium so the tidal effects on our oceans are much more apparent than those on Earth's crust.

reply posted on 18-11-2011 @ 03:19 PM by Devino

reply to post by BrokenCircles

Is that part of the reason that we only see the one side?
Gravitational tides keep it from spinning?

I think that sums it up.

The Moon rotates exactly once per revolution of the Earth which is the reason why it shows only one face at the Earth.
...
Why has this happened to the Moon? It is due to tidal forces of the Earth...
Earth exerts tidal forces on the Moon which are more powerful as the Earth is more massive than the Moon. It turns out that these forces exert torques on the rotating system and tends to slow its rotation till it finally shows the same face towards the other body.

Source
There is also the theory that the side facing Earth is more dense than the far side.

reply posted on 18-11-2011 @ 04:52 PM by Illustronic

reply to post by Devino

Yeah, I meant as far as tearing down spacecraft, or buildings on the moon. My house on earth will survive a 5.5 quake here.

reply posted on 18-11-2011 @ 04:56 PM by Illustronic

reply to post by Devino

Yes and it gives the moon a pear shape, ever so slightly. We know the earth is wider at the equator (by some 25 miles) than it is at the poles, the poor moon always faces the father earth so the side we see is sort of reaching out towards us, so even without the wobble, we would still see more than 50% of the moons surface.

I'll bet you always wondered about that huh.

An earlier hotter moon would likely have distributed more of its heavier core closer to earth.

edit on 18-11-2011 by Illustronic because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 20-11-2011 @ 06:31 AM by diamondsmith

There are earthquakes even on Mars!

Mars used to be a mover and a shaker. Scientists don't know if it still entertains seismic activity, however. No mission has ever been equipped to properly measure any rattling that might still occur.

Now a study comparing images of intriguing pits on Mars to similar features on Earth suggests the red planet indeed still rumbles.

"It's likely that there may be marsquakes today, but seismic monitoring will be required to know for sure," said study leader David Ferrill of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "Until then, it's just scientific speculation."source(www.space.com...

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