Faults discovered on the Moon pose a potential danger to astronauts, Report informs via The Planetary Science Journal.
The formation of such faults is associated with seismic events on the Moon due to the compression of the Moon as a result of the cooling of the core. It is emphasized that the establishment of cosmonaut outposts near such faults is dangerous for the lives of people and equipment.
“A slight seismic shock may be sufficient to trigger a regolith landslide, especially if the regolith has low cohesion (around ∼0.1 kPa),” the scientists noted.
Regolith is the name given to residual soil that is a product of space weathering of rock in situ. Most often this is the name given to the surface layer of loose lunar soil.