The moon may enter a new geological period thanks to human activity

Humanity’s impact on the moon has been so great that researchers argue that we need to define a new geological epoch, similar to the creation of the Anthropocene on Earth. They say lunar “national parks” should also be created to preserve areas for scientific research.

The Anthropocene is the name given to the era in which humans began to have a major impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems. Although this definition is still being agreed upon, most researchers agree that the Earth was born in 1950, characterized by the presence of plutonium isotopes from nuclear weapons tests in the sediments of a relatively pristine lake in Canada. It suggests that the time has come.

now, Justin Allen Holcomb in The University of Kansas and their colleagues found that spacecraft landings, lunar probes, and other human activities are displacing more surface regolith than natural phenomena such as meteorite impacts, and the moon is entering the Anthropocene. states that.

Humanity began to impact the moon in September 1959, when the Soviet Union crash-landed its Luna 2 spacecraft on the moon’s surface, leaving behind a crater. India became the fourth country to soft land on the moon this year, and various national and private missions are planned in the near future. Until today, lolI caused it surface disturbance in in Even if only slightly 59 place On the surface of the moon, destroyed the object containing spaceship parts, flag, golf ball and human bag excrement.

Holcomb said estimates of the weight of artifacts left on the moon and the amount of regolith displaced by human activities vary widely, but once colonization and mining efforts began, both He said it is likely to increase significantly in the coming years. – Requires further consideration of impacts.

“All the focus is on the amount of money and minerals we can get, but we really need to slow down and talk about what the consequences are,” he says. “And I think other scientific disciplines, such as anthropology, ecology, and archaeology, should also be involved in these discussions.”

Ingo Waldman Researchers at University College London say the Moon has indeed entered a phase that corresponds to the Anthropocene, since the Moon’s geology is less dramatic. Weak lunar earthquakes occur sporadically, and water is only deposited in the surface regolith over many years by the solar wind.

“It’s very slow,” he says. “Might happen [asteroid] It affects people about once every 2 million years. But other than that, not much else happens. Just walking on it has a bigger environmental impact than anything that will happen to the moon in hundreds of thousands of years. ” The Moon’s current geological division, the Copernican Era, dates back more than a billion years. In contrast, Earth went through about 15 geological epochs during this period.

Waldman worries that missions such as NASA’s Artemis III, which aims to land astronauts on the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, will contaminate the lunar surface and make understanding its geology even more difficult. I am concerned that this may not be the case. He argues that an international agreement is needed to create the equivalent of a national park on the moon.

“The Moon’s surface is the most pristine environment we have access to, because the regolith is deposited so slowly and erosion occurs so slowly that the Moon holds the entire geological record of the solar system. “There’s a lot left on Earth, but we don’t know about it,” says Waldman. “I think that’s important for science.”

mark sefton A professor at Imperial College London supports the proposal, but says a balance is needed. “To understand the history of the moon, we need at least the equivalent of a national park that can be used for deep research and exploration in the future,” he says. “But at the same time, humanity needs to explore and expand into the solar system.”