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> no earthquakes No but how about moon-quakes? Ok, not geologically active you say. But moon's been bombarded by asteroids it's surface is full of craters. Crea
by galaxyLogic 9y ago
> no earthquakes
No but how about moon-quakes? Ok, not geologically active you say. But moon's been bombarded by asteroids it's surface is full of craters. Creating a crater wouldn't that be an equivalent of a moon-quake?
- kseverest 9y agoYou are absolutely correct.
- nkoren 9y agoThis is the correct answer. These lava tubes are, at their youngest, a couple billion years old. Since then, the moon has been thwacked very hard and -- on those timescales -- often. If the tubes haven't collapsed yet, then there's a high likelihood that they're exceptionally stable.
- DougWebb 9y agoThat could be survivor bias. Maybe there used to be a lot more of them.
- robryk 9y agoWouldn't a collapsed tube be very distinctive visually?
- nkoren 9y agoVery much so -- and one has even been explored by humans! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley%E2%80%93Apennine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley%E2%80%93Apennine
- njarboe 9y agoYes survivor bias. But since these survived, they are likely to be structurally sound. Like antique furniture or structures on Earth.
- larkeith 9y agoDoes that count as natural selection?
- pstuart 9y agoI don't think lava tubes breed.
- hyperbovine 9y agoSurvival of the fittest, then.
- knappe 9y agoYou're not accounting for tidal forces. The same forces that create the tides on Earth also affect the moon. In this case via moon-quakes. https://phys.org/news/2017-08-moon-tidal-stress-responsible-deep.html https://phys.org/news/2017-08-moon-tidal-stress-responsible-...
- hyperpallium 9y agoBut the moon is one-face, so tidal stress should be constant.
- harperlee 9y agoWhat about the sun's? If the force is strong enough to make earth orbit, and moon-to-sun distance oscillates, plus seasonal behaviour, there must be quite some straining tides...
- hyperpallium 9y agooh yeah, that makes sense. It's a tiny fraction of the moon-sun distance, but it would have some efrect. Is it a "tidal" force, though?
- andai 9y agoThe sun also creates the tides.