Study recommends distributed acoustic sensing to detect moonquakes

Seismometers were flown to the Moon during the Apollo mission where they collected data on lunar seismic activity for eight years and recorded quakes as powerful as magnitude 5.

The Moon is not tectonically active, but quakes occur under several circumstances. According to Caltech, some are caused by day-to-night thermal differences as the surface varies in temperature, others that occur deeper could be caused by Earth's gravitational pull, and others are caused by the Moon slowly cooling and contracting over time.

Understanding how, when, and where these quakes occur is critical for planning missions to the Moon, particularly if NASA’s Artemis mission – which will deploy seismic sensors - is to establish a permanent base there for missions to Mars.

Now, a new study demonstrates that distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), an emerging new seismological technology, would measure lunar quakes with extraordinary precision. The research is detailed in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.