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Science 20 August 2010:
Vol. 329. no. 5994, pp. 936 - 940
DOI: 10.1126/science.1189590
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Reports
Evidence of Recent Thrust Faulting on the Moon Revealed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera
Thomas R. Watters,1,*
Mark S. Robinson,2
Ross A. Beyer,3,4
Maria E. Banks,1
James F. Bell, III,5
Matthew E. Pritchard,6
Harald Hiesinger,7,8
Carolyn H. van der Bogert,7
Peter C. Thomas,9
Elizabeth P. Turtle,10
Nathan R. Williams6
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images reveal previously undetected lobate thrust-fault scarps and associated meter-scale secondary tectonic landforms that include narrow extensional troughs or graben, splay faults, and multiple low-relief terraces. Lobate scarps are among the youngest landforms on the Moon, based on their generally crisp appearance, lack of superposed large-diameter impact craters, and the existence of crosscut small-diameter impact craters. Identification of previously known scarps was limited to high-resolution Apollo Panoramic Camera images confined to the equatorial zone. Fourteen lobate scarps were identified, seven of which are at latitudes greater than ±60°, indicating that the thrust faults are globally distributed. This detection, coupled with the very young apparent age of the faults, suggests global late-stage contraction of the Moon.
2 School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85251, USA.
3 Carl Sagan Center, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
4 NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035–0001, USA.
5 Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
6 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
7 Institut für Planetologie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, 48149 Münster, Germany.
8 Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Box 1846, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
9 Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
10 Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: watterst{at}si.edu
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