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Age dating, geometry and movement direction of a 411 km long lunar lobate scarp complex: Evidence of recent tectonism on the far side of the moon.

Mishra A, Kumar PS.

PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2026.106280 

Lobate scarps are young thrust faults that were formed in response to global contraction on the Moon. These provide important insights into the nature of active tectonic stresses, timing of global contraction and active seismicity in the lunar crust. In this study, we report a newly detected, ~400 km long lobate scarp complex from far side of the Moon. It is one of the longest known scarp complexes from the lunar far side. The scarp complex consists of 233 individual scarp segments, with lengths ranging from 0.2 to >10 km. The scarp segments have a dominant E-W strike direction and exhibit both equatorward to north poleward vergence. Using the conventional crater counting method, we dated 12 prominent lobate scarp segments along this scarp complex that yielded an age range of 28 Ma to 94 Ma, indicating the timings of seismic resurfacing and the Detormed latest phase of global contraction in the last 100 million years.

Fig:LROCWAC&NACimagesshowingthe400kmlonglobatescarp.TheLROCNACimagemosaicshowingtheen-echelon patternoffaultinginthescarpcomplex.TheNW-SEtrendingscarppostdatestheENE-WSEorientedscarp(markedasolder scarp).

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