{
  "id": 14810397,
  "title": "Lunar fault maps reveal how much the moon is shrinking",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/lunar-fault-maps-reveal-how-much-the-moon-is-shrinking",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-15T22:40:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lunar-fault-reveal-moon.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent study has mapped over 10,000 young faults on the moon, revealing that the lunar body has shrunk by approximately 45 meters over the past 400 to 800 million years as its interior gradually cooled. Led by Thomas R. Watters and his team, the researchers used data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera to identify lobate scarps and small mare ridges across both the lunar highlands and maria. If the rate of radius decrease remains constant, the moon has been shrinking by 6 to 11 centimeters per million years or 0.1 micrometers per year. This rate is significantly lower than Earth's plate movement, which averages 1.5 centimeters per year. Unlike Earth's tectonic activity concentrated along plate boundaries, the moon's single plate experiences faults distributed across its entire surface. This means moonquakes can occur anywhere on the moon, resulting from slip events on existing faults or the formation of new ones. Some areas have more faults than others, with the thickest lunar crust exhibiting fewer faults, potentially indicating greater stability. The study suggests that widespread faulting on the moon did not occur early in lunar history due to a thick, porous crust that insulated the interior, hindering cooling and contraction until more recently.",
  "summary": "A new study of young tectonic landforms on the moon offers the most detailed estimate yet of how much the moon has contracted as its interior gradually cooled over time.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}