The Moon Is Shrinking Like a Wrinkled Apple

astroengine writes "New observations by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have uncovered a number of previously unknown, recently formed 'lobate scarps' — raised cliffs about 9 meters high and several kilometers long — over the lunar surface. These scarps form along thrust faults where compression forces the moon's crust to rise. Up until now it was thought these lobate scarps only occurred around the lunar equator, but the high resolution LRO imagery suggests they are ubiquitous, regardless of latitude. As the moon is geologically inactive, what could be creating these features? It would appear the moon's surface is acting like the skin of an apple surrounding the shrinking, dehydrated flesh of the fruit; the lunar crust (skin) is wrinkling as the body of the moon (the flesh) shrinks due to cooling contraction inside the moon's core."

Comments

Re:Al Gore says..

[mark72005]

dear GOD! Quick - onerous taxation to the rescue!

We only have 10 years to repair all the damage we've done to the moon, or it will be too late ;)

Re:Tides?

[TimHunter]

My first thought was couldn't this be more of a tidal effect than due to shrinking?

What a brilliant idea! Why don't you call up "David Morrison, senior scientist at NASA's Lunar Science Institute and NASA's 'Ask an Astrobiologist' http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/ expert" and share your insight with him?

Say something like "Hey Dave! I've RTF summary on Slashdot and now I think I know more about this than you do."

Then post back and tell us what happened.