Scientists track down fresh boulder falls on the moon

This article is republished from Eos. Read the original article.

As a boulder rolls down a cliff slope on the moon, it kicks up lunar dust, leaving behind a telltale herringbone pattern of ejecta.

In a recent study, for the first time, scientists geolocated and dated evidence of such boulder falls. They identified 245 fresh tracks created as boulders rolled, bounced, and slid down crater walls.

"For a long time, there was this belief that the moon is geologically dead.…Our study shows that boulders with sizes ranging [from] tens to hundreds of meters and [with] weights in tons have moved from their places over time," said Sivaprahasam Vijayan, the study’s lead author and an associate professor at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India. "It is equally important to know how