A region of the moon that is at the center of a new international space field because it may contain ice could be less welcoming than researchers thought a few years ago according to new research.

As CNN points out in its extensive report interest in the lunar south pole soared last year, when India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission made the first successful soft landing in the region, days after the Russian Luna-25 spacecraft crashed on its way to attempt the same. NASA has chosen the region as a landing site for the Artemis III mission, which could mark the return of astronauts to the Moon in 2026and China also has plans to create future habitats there.

But now a NASA-funded study is sounding the alarm for this area: As the moon’s core gradually cools and shrinks, its surface develops folds that create “earthquakes” that can last for hours, as well as landslides. Like the rest of the natural satellite’s surface, the south pole region of so much interest is prone to these seismic phenomena, potentially posing a threat to future settlers and equipment.

“This is not to alarm anyone and certainly not to discourage the exploration of this part of the lunar south poles,” said the study’s lead author, Thomas R. Watters, senior scientist emeritus at the National Air and Space Museum’s Earth Center. and Planetary Studies, “but to draw attention that the moon is not that favorable place where nothing happens.”

The moon has shrunk by about 150 feet in circumference over the past million years – a significant number in geological terms, but too small to cause any ripples on Earth or in tidal cycles, according to researchers.

On the lunar surface, however, it’s a different story. Despite the what its appearance might suggest, the moon still has a hot interior, which makes it seismically active.

“There’s an outer core that’s molten and cooling,” Watters said. “As it cools, the moon shrinks, the internal volume changes, and the crust has to adapt to this change – it’s a global contraction, to which tidal forces on Earth also contribute,” he pointed out.

Because the surface of the moon is fragile, this pull creates cracks, which geologists call faults. “The moon is thought to be this geologically dead object where nothing has happened for billions of years, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Waters said. “These mistakes are very small and things happen. We actually detected landslides that have occurred during the time that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been in orbit around the moon.”

“We knew from the Apollo seismic experiment that there were these shallow earthquakes but we didn’t really know what the source was.”, Watters added. “We also knew that the largest of the shallow earthquakes detected by the Apollo seismometers was near the South Pole,” he said.

The strongest earthquake recorded was equivalent to a magnitude of 5 on the Richter scale. On Earth, that would be considered modest, but the moon’s lower gravity makes it worse, Watters said.

“On Earth, you have a much stronger gravity that keeps you attached to the surface. On the moon, it is much smaller, so even a little ground acceleration will take you off if you’re walking along.” he said. “That kind of shaking can really start to throw things off in a low-G environment.”