Tremors are not only felt on Earth, but Moon, our only natural satellite, also experiences such quakes due to the collision of tectonic plates beneath its surface. These claims are based on the photo of Moon that was sent by India’s first lunar probe Chandrayaan-1.
These pictures were taken by the Narrow Angle camera and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera of Chandrayaan-1, as revealed in a PTI report.
Saumitra Mukherjee, professor of Geology & Remote Sensing at School of Environmental sciences in Jawaharlal Nehru University, along with his student Priyadarshini Singh, has analyzed the pictures of the surface of moon.
According to Mukherjee, the data collected from south polar region of the moon reveals that many evidences have been found which establish that tectonic activity occur on the lunar surface, very similar to that on Earth.
The professor asserted, “Tectonic plates at surface move due to mantle layer of earth’s core and the movement of tectonic plates on moon establish that some material in liquid form is present under its surface too.”
He further added, “In this way we can perceptually conclude that moon also have a core. Then it is also possible the structure of Moon is similar to Earth, so comparative study of quakes on moon and earthquakes could be done.”
At present, there is no way to predict the occurrence of earthquakes. However, Mukherjee believes that by studying and comparing the tectonic plates’ movements on Moon with what happens on Earth we may be able to forecast this in the long run.
ISRO’s Space Application Centre, which is based in Ahmedabad, helped professor Mukherjee and his team in the study, which appeared in journals like Nature India, Frontiers in Earth Science and IEEE Geoscience and remote sensing letters.
[“source-gizmodo.in”]
