Moonquakes Help Scientists Locate Hidden Lunar Ice Deposits

Scientists say the Moon’s hidden ice could be detected not by drilling first, but by listening for the way seismic waves move through the lunar ground. A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Hawaii shows that moonquakes may reveal where buried ice is located and provide an estimate of how much water is trapped beneath the surface.

The findings, published in Science Advances, arrive as international space agencies prepare for a new era of lunar exploration. NASA’s Artemis program is targeting the Moon’s south polar region for crewed landings, while China’s Chang’e-7 mission is expected to investigate the same region later this decade. Both efforts are focused on permanently shadowed craters, where temperatures can remain low enough for water ice to survive for billions of years.

Lunar water is more than a scientific curiosity. If astronauts can locate and extract it, the ice could become one of the most valuable resources available beyond Earth. Melted and purified lunar ice could provide drinking water, while electrolysis could separate it into hydrogen and oxygen. Those gases could support life-support systems and potentially serve as rocket propellant, reducing the enormous cost of transporting supplies from Earth.

The challenge is that current orbital instruments cannot determine the full depth or concentration of suspected ice deposits. Radar, infrared sensors and other spacecraft instruments can examine the uppermost layers of lunar soil, but ice may be mixed into regolith several meters or more beneath the surface. The new research proposes that seismic waves could act as an underground detection system, revealing buried deposits that are invisible from orbit.

The principle is based on the physical contrast between dry lunar soil and soil containing ice. Seismic waves travel through materials at speeds determined partly by their stiffness and density. When ice occupies the tiny spaces between grains of lunar regolith, it can strengthen the mixture and allow vibrations to travel two to three times faster than they would through dry soil. The boundary between icy and non-icy material can also reflect seismic energy, producing a measurable signal similar to an echo.

“ We can use seismic waves to not just see whether ice is present but also roughly how much of it there is,” said Nicholas Schmerr, an associate professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences and a co-author of the study. The technique would not necessarily produce an immediate, high-resolution map of every ice particle, but it could identify zones with distinct physical properties and estimate their abundance.

To test the idea, the researchers combined laboratory experiments, thermal modeling and computer simulations. Harrison Lisabeth, the study’s lead author and a rock physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, froze a volcanic rock from Arizona that, once crushed, closely resembles lunar dust. Using X-ray imaging, he examined how ice formed and settled within the microscopic spaces between soil grains. The results helped establish how frozen material changes the internal structure of lunar-like regolith.

Matthew Siegler of the University of Hawaii produced detailed temperature models of the Moon’s south polar terrain, focusing on craters that receive little or no sunlight. In these permanently shadowed environments, temperatures can remain cold enough to preserve volatile compounds, including water ice, over geological timescales. Schmerr then used computer simulations to model small moonquakes traveling through these regions and interacting with layers containing different amounts of ice. Across the experiments and simulations, the presence of ice produced clear changes in the timing, speed and reflection of seismic energy.

Those signals could soon be tested directly on the Moon. China’s Chang’e-7 mission is expected to carry a seismometer to the vicinity of Shackleton Crater, one of the most closely studied locations near the lunar south pole. NASA’s Artemis astronauts may also deploy the Lunar Environmental Monitoring Station, an instrument designed in part to study seismic activity and subsurface structure. Unlike Earth, the Moon lacks active plate tectonics, but it still experiences moonquakes caused by tidal forces, thermal expansion and impacts. Even relatively weak vibrations could provide the energy needed to probe the underground environment.

The scientific payoff could extend far beyond future lunar settlements. Permanently shadowed craters function as natural cold traps, preserving substances delivered by comets, asteroids and the solar wind. Because much of the lunar surface records events dating back roughly four billion years, analyzing those deposits could help scientists reconstruct how water and other volatiles moved through the early solar system. If seismic instruments confirm the predicted signatures, researchers will gain both a practical tool for locating resources and a new way to investigate how water eventually reached Earth. “No one has physically measured the ice on the Moon yet,” Schmerr said, “but we now have a prediction for what to look out for.”

News Publication Date: 31-Jul-2026

Web References: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adz7220; https://www.geol.umd.edu/nicholasschmerr; https://energygeosciences.lbl.gov/profile/hlisabeth/; https://www.higp.hawaii.edu/index.php/people/matt-siegler/

References: Science Advances, “The seismic signature of lunar ice,” DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adz7220

Keywords

Moon, lunar ice, water on the Moon, moonquakes, seismic waves, Artemis, Chang’e-7, lunar south pole, permanently shadowed craters, space exploration, lunar resources, planetary science