Moon is about 240,000 miles away from our planet and this lunar neighbor of our planet Earth is not as romantic and beautiful as it seems to be from its far stunning image. Moon is bit different from the place we lived in and according to the researchers if we go there then we may need quack proof housing. Earthquake is a natural devastating phenomena and its severity may lead to some unpredictable terrifying results. The process of quaking at the moon surface is obviously moon quaking and they are more weird and actually violent at moon.
Moonquakes an Overview
Apollo astronauts place seismometers at different sites on moon between 1969 and 1972. Apollo instruments radioed data back to earth until they were switched off in 1977. And according to the data obtained through the seismometers the moon surface is seismically active and moonquakes can lasts 20 times longer than the earthquakes on earth. These devices were active for 5 years on the moon surface from 1972-1977 and in this time span they recorded more than 12,000 moonquakes. If we compare the moonquakes with the earthquakes then on earth there are 20,000 earthquakes each year. But the difference is earth is a much larger planet than moon and most of the earthquakes are weak and even undetected by the humans.
Moonquakes in four forms
Earthquakes happen because of the movement of tectonic plates (rock pieces associated to form the earth crust). At moon tectonic plates are absent and strong moonquake occurs because of the strain of dramatic temperature changes over the lunar day (roughly 29 Earth days). Though, we can differentiate the moonquakes in four different types.
-
Deep moonquakes
They happen at the moon surface so often with the cycle of about 27 days below the moon surface nearly 700km. According to the researchers the tidal pull of earth has a dramatic link between the moon and earth. This tidal pull cracks the deep rock core of the moon.
-
Meteor moonquakes
There is no atmosphere on the moon and every small meteorite that headed for the moon may strike it. On earth the atmosphere burn the meteorite that headed towards the earth surface. This phenomenon on the moon surface causes the rippling earthquakes.
-
Thermal moonquakes
This type of moonquake is linked with the temperature fluctuations on the frigid moon surface. For about two weeks half of the moon is in darkness at a time and temperature can fall to -240 degrees Fahrenheit. After that when the same surface faces sunshine, the temperature reaches to +250 Fahrenheit. It results in the moonquake because of the sudden expand of frozen crust.
4. Shallow moonquakes
This type of moonquake is the strongest one and results in high devastation and damage actually. The reason behind this type of moonquake is unknown, making the moon insufficient for the human colonization. Moon is a one plate celestial body and in shallow moonquakes it can reach the magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale. In a 5 years’ time span about 28 times moon surface face shallow moonquake.
