Indian Researcher discovers that Moon has tectonic plates and these could cause earthquakes just like on Earth
As per a recent analysis, Tectonic plates could be present inside the surface of moon whose movement causes “quakes” similar to the ones on planet Earth.
Saumitra Mukherjee, professor of Geology and Remote Sensing at School of Environmental sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University along with his student Priyadarshini Singh analyzed the images of moon’s surface which indicated that there could be tectonic plates present on moon too.
The images used for analysis were taken by the Narrow Angle Camera and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera of Chandrayaan-1.
Professor Mukherjee said that the data had been collected from the south polar region of the moon and there were many evidences found which established the fact that tectonic activity does occur on the lunar surface; which is more or less similar to those found on Earth.
Professor Mukherjee further said: “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 also 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.”
He then said: “So comparative study of quakes on moon and earthquakes could be done.”
Professor Mukherjee said that as of now it is difficult to predict the earthquakes as we do not have a proper methodology. Studying the movements of the tectonic plates and the quakes on moon and then comparing them with the earthquakes can definitely lead to some method which would help in predicting the occurrence of future earthquakes.
Professor Mukherjee was assisted in his study by Space Application Center which is an institute of Indian Space Research Organization based in Ahmadabad.
The detailed study regarding this analysis has been published in journals such as Nature India, Frontiers in Earth Science, IEEE Geoscience a swell as remote sensing letters.
Professor Mukherjee added: “This finding is ‘Make in India’ in true sense as the data used in this study is provided by an Indian spacecraft and analysis of this data has also been done by Indian scientists.”
