--- title: Moon's Shrinking May Be Causing Moonquakes description: A new NASA sponsored study found that as moon's interior cools, it shrinks, which causes its hard surface to crack and form fault lines canonical: https://time.com/5588711/nasa-shrinking-moon-moonquakes/ author: Amy Gunia article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-14T06:02:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T23:31:08.788Z article:section: Science og:title: Moon's Shrinking May Be Causing Moonquakes og:description: Scientists found evidence of seismic activity as the moon cools and shrinks og:url: https://time.com/5588711/nasa-shrinking-moon-moonquakes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62e70ee8f22acbb5/698949e1b21a9c09615009b9/moon-shrinking-moonquakes.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: moon-shrinking-moonquakes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Moon's Shrinking May Be Causing Moonquakes twitter:description: Scientists found evidence of seismic activity as the moon cools and shrinks twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62e70ee8f22acbb5/698949e1b21a9c09615009b9/moon-shrinking-moonquakes.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Moon Is Shrinking, and It's Causing Powerful 'Moonquakes' by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. May 14, 2019 6:02 AM UTC  The International Space Station is seen in silhouette as it transits the Moon, in Manchester Township, York County, Pa. on Dec. 2, 2017. The International Space Station is seen in silhouette as it transits the Moon, in Manchester Township, York County, Pa. on Dec. 2, 2017.Joel Kowsky—AP by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. May 14, 2019 6:02 AM UTC The moon is getting smaller, which causes wrinkles in its surface and [moonquakes,](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2019/moonquakes) according to a new study. As the moon’s interior cools, it shrinks, which causes its hard surface to crack and form fault lines, according to research sponsored by NASA. The moon has gotten about 150 feet skinnier over the last few hundred million years. NASA posted a video on Twitter showing fault lines on the moon’s surface. > [](https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1127960573277278208) Astronauts have placed seismometers on the moon over a series of past [missions](http://100photos.time.com/photos/neil-armstrong-nasa-man-on-moon). Scientists, who determined that the moonquakes are close enough to the fault lines to establish causality, published their analysis in a study in [Nature Geoscience](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0362-2) on Monday, according to [NASA](http://time.com/5408827/nasa-spacecraft-missions/). The space agency has also recorded evidence of fault lines in a series of images. **Read More:** [_Jeff Bezos Is Promising the Moon — But There Are Plenty of Reasons to Doubt Him_](http://time.com/5587227/jeff-bezos-amazon-moon-blue-origin/) “Our analysis gives the first evidence that these faults are still active and likely producing moonquakes today as the Moon continues to gradually cool and shrink,” said Thomas Watters, lead author of the study and senior scientist in the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, according to a press release on NASA’s website. Watters says that the quakes can be strong, around a five on the Richter scale, according to the NASA statement. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5588711/nasa-shrinking-moon-moonquakes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5588711/nasa-shrinking-moon-moonquakes/"},"headline":"The Moon Is Shrinking, and It's Causing Powerful 'Moonquakes'","datePublished":"2019-05-14T06:02:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:31:08.788Z","description":"Scientists found evidence of seismic activity as the moon cools and shrinks","url":"https://time.com/5588711/nasa-shrinking-moon-moonquakes/","keywords":["Space","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62e70ee8f22acbb5/698949e1b21a9c09615009b9/moon-shrinking-moonquakes.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amy Gunia","jobTitle":"Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong.","url":"https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62e70ee8f22acbb5/698949e1b21a9c09615009b9/moon-shrinking-moonquakes.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"moon-shrinking-moonquakes","caption":"Moon Shrinking Moonquakes","creditText":"Joel Kowsky—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5588711/nasa-shrinking-moon-moonquakes/","name":"The Moon Is Shrinking, and It's Causing Powerful 'Moonquakes'"}}]}] ```