Tunnels on the Moon

[silylene]

Unusual deep hole on the moon

This unusually deep feature on the moon (in box) is 65 meters wide and may be a portal into an underground cavern that once held flowing lava.

DEEP HOLE SPOTTED ON MOON
Feature may be ‘skylight’ in an underground lava tube
By Sid Perkins Web edition : Friday, November 20th, 2009
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/49845/title/Deep_hole_spotted_on_moon

New revelations of a big hole in the moon don’t revive the notion that our cosmic companion is made of Swiss cheese. Instead, scientists say, the unusually proportioned feature is most likely a portal into an underground cavern that once held flowing lava.

Analyses of high-resolution images taken by a moon-orbiting probe suggest that the 65-meter-wide, nearly circular feature is between 80 and 88 meters deep, says Carolyn H. van der Bogert, a planetary geologist at Westphalian Wilhelm’s University Münster in Germany. Typical impact craters of this size, she notes, are less than 15 meters deep.

Although the hole is located in a lunar province once home to widespread volcanic activity, a dearth of hardened lava around the hole indicates that it isn’t a volcanic crater, she and her colleagues report in the Nov. 16 Geophysical Research Letters. The geology of the region also suggests that the hole isn’t associated with a fault zone.

The feature is likely what geologists refer to as a skylight, or collapsed portion of the roof of an underground tube that once held flowing lava, van der Bogert and her colleagues propose. If that’s true, the skylight is the first such portal spotted on the moon.

 

[silylene]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

This might make an interesting location for a subterranean moon base.

 

[R1]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

Interesting.
Maybe a robot should explore it forthwith.

 

[kg]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

How did they estimate the depth of the hole from the image?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

How did they estimate the depth of the hole from the image?

Just a guess, but probably from the shadows of the edges projecting on the floor.

EDIT::

This is the one observed by SELENE and reported in an agu paper:

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2 ... 0635.shtml

In the abstract, which is almost identical to the current article is this line:

"We observed the hole at various solar illumination conditions and estimated its depth to be 80 to 88 m."

 

[CommonMan]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

At 80 meters it would be approx. 262.4664 ft deep. Thats pretty deep. I wonder if there would be anything to see down there?
Robin: Holy deep hole on the moon Batman.
Batman: What?

 

[R1]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

The caption stated that it could be a portal to caverns.
Is there a full moon image showing the location of the hole ?
Can humans travel to and from the hole to polar bases easily ?
What should the hole be named ? If it already had a name as a crater, maybe it should
be renamed to something pertaining to lunar human exploration uses?

It is so peculiar and intriguing.

 

[kg]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

If it is a large cavern could it trap water like the dark craters at the poles? Would much water find its way through a 80 meter hole?

 

[silylene]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

It would be very interesting to land a rover next to it, which includes a crane boom, roll up to the edge, and then lower a probe on a wire which consists of a camera / light / spectrometer. I would think that the walls of the hole would be VERY interesting. Are there layers ? What could this tell us about the history of that location? And at the bottom of the hole, is there a cavern, or not? Is this actually a lava tube?

I don't think a micro-rover lowered by wire would be good (yet). Usually the spot in a lava tube right below a ceiling collapse consists of an unnavigatible mound of rubble. We'd need to see if there is a rubble pile down there, and if there is a cavern first.

 

[3488]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

Thanks for this silylene,

Most fascinating. I suspoect we are looking at a lava tube roof collapse, possibly a meteor impacting it. There may be others in a linear fashion to the either side of this area.

I've had a go at cropping, sharpening & enlargening the hole.

Andrew Brown.

 

[SpaceTas]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

Good idea; these old lave tubes might also trap water. But on 2nd thoughts maybe not. Heat would leak through the regolith and rock of the roof/sides of the lava tube into the cavern from the surface. They would be a tad warmer than the shaded craters which only get heat reflected off nearby cliffs.

There shouldn't be any layers if this is a lava tube.

Another fascinating place to explore on the Moon.

If you get a chance go explore a lave tube: Sicily Mt Etna, Hawaii, Lava Beds National Monument California

 

[bushwhacker]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

what caught my eye first and really facinates me is the raised area to the right and below the opening in that first picture.

 

[bdewoody]

I watch a lot of the Discovery Channels and while watching a program about the building of the Chunnel I got the idea that after several bases are established on the moon they could be connected by a tunnel system constructed by tunnel boring machines. Granted it will be a while before machinery that large can be manufactured on the moon but think of the possibilities.

I wonder though, is the interior of the moon sufficiently cooled down that a tunnel could be built on more or less a straight line between destinations? I would think the tectonic stability of the moon would allow for deep tunnels. Although I have read that there are moon quakes I don't think there is any plate shifting like here on earth.

The tunnels could also serve as shelters for when solar activity requires action. Any thoughts out there about this idea.

 

[kelvinzero]

I agree. You would probably want to live permanently underground in fact.

It isnt just solar flares that are dangerous. Cosmic radiation is also a significant health risk over extended periods and contains much more energetic particles. To stop cosmic radiation I remember hearing somwhere that you need several meters of regolith. This cosmic radiation is a problem everywhere except earth.

The surface just isnt a great place for people. It is a good place for solar power farms and (maybe) some sort of automated agriculture. Even for that artificial lighting would very likely end up being less problematic.

I dont know how deep you could dig a hole on the moon but Im sure we could go far deeper than is possible on earth.

When we colonize this solar system the majority of the human race will probably live in vast low-gravity chambers kilometers deep under rock and ice, with some pretty spectacular architecture.

 

[R1]

It just seems much easier to lay the tunnel network on the surface, and then bury it with surrounding
regolith. It seems quicker, and more cost efficient, the surface tunnels can also be easily modified,
moved, or removed, and the same materials used again.

Tunnels may not be very necessary to begin with. I can envision a few small ones here and there, but
certainly no giant interstate-like tunnel network. The lunar vehicles will probably have much better shielding,
unlike the Apollo land rover.

 

[Woggles]

I agree with you R1. Easier to build a tunnel structure above ground and bury it.

 

[silylene]

There is a pre-existing tunnel system in the lunar lava tubes, and a hole to access it. See my previous thread: http://www.space.com/common/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=21368

 

[R1]

There is a pre-existing tunnel system in the lunar lava tubes, and a hole to access it. See my previous thread: http://www.space.com/common/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=21368

It's still speculation, I thought. If there really is a tunnel there then it's definitely worth exploring. But doesn't the hole
indicate that the cave/tunnel is subject to collapse?

----------------------------------

Is there as much solar radiation danger during and on the parts not illuminated by the sun?
If there is not as much, you know we could build a base on the lunar pole which is on a circular track?
The base would continuously keep itself away from the sunlight, by being slowly moved on the rails.

 

[silylene]

Well, until we lower a camera down there, we won't know much about the tunnel (which is considered likely).

Sky and Telescope this month had an article on the hole, and tunnel. S&T said everything I had already said in the other thread on how this tunnel and hole could be useful. S & T also said that imaging the hole will be a focus of the upcoming lunar orbiter with much improved high resolution imagery capability.

The tunnel has probably been there since the maria cooled from the magma flows, 3B years ago. The hole was probably punched through by a meteorite.

 

[3488]

I suspect that too silylene.

It would be wonderful to lower a camera down there with a powerful bright white searchlight, to the floor & perhaps even lower some kind of rover equipped likewise to drive along it, possibly to the original feeder vent.

We know that Mars has similar, Mercury most likely too IMO (in fact I am 100% sure of it) & most likely the Jupiter moon Io too (Io's are probably still flowing with lava).

There is a chance that DAWN may find lava tubes on the asteroid 4 Vesta.

Below is a photograph I took of the interior of a Lava Tube on the Canary Island of Tenerife, one of the tubes associated with the Pico del Teide, within the Caldera de las Canadas del Teide.

Solidified lava drips on the roof of the Teide Lava Tube on Tenerife I took. Shows how hot it was in there at one time for a basalt roof to melt.

Fascinating area of study.

I have merged both threads as they are both are far too interesting to lock either.

I hope silylene & bdewoody are OK with this.


Andrew Brown.

 

[bdewoody]

I'm OK with the merge.

 

[silylene]

yes I am OK with it, and wish we would send a rover to investigate the hole further!

 

[garato]

Moon molemen?

 

[EarthlingX]

www.planetary.org : Likely candidate for an un-collapsed lava tube

By Emily Lakdawalla

Jun. 21, 2010 | 13:11 PDT | 20:11 UTC

In February, the Chandrayaan-1 science team had a meeting in Ahmedabad, India, to share their results with each other. Indian space blogger Pradeep Mohandas forwarded me a document containing numerous abstracts from that meeting. I'm not sure that the document itself was intended for public consumption; some of the results in it may be lined up for formal publication, so I won't post the full document here.

But there was one cool little paper that I just had to write about: "Identification of an Un-Collapsed Lava Tube for Possible Future Human Settlement Using Chandryaan-1 TMC Data," by A. S. Arya, R. P. Rajasekhar, Ajai, A. S. Kiran Kumar, and R. R. Navalfund of the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). I contacted Dr. Arya, who gave me permission to post the images below -- a big thanks for those images!

A discontinuous rille on the Moon (Lunar Orbiter view)
A small segment of sinuous rille within Oceanus Procellarum is discontinuous, suggesting the possibility that part of it has an intact roof. Credit: NASA

Perspective view of uncollapsed lava tube on the Moon
Credit: SAC / ISRO / INDIA, courtesy of A. S. Arya

Perspective view of uncollapsed lava tube on the Moon
This perspective view of a discontinuous sinuous rille in the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum was generated from Chandrayaan-1 Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) data. TMC had two overlapping cameras, so produced stereoscopic views of the lunar terrain at a resolution of 5 meters per pixel. The rille is located at 58.317°W, 14.111°N. The topographic data indicates that the surface of the segment of lunar crust between the two rille segments has topography continuous with the surrounding plains, strongly suggesting that the open sections of the rille are areas where the roof has collapsed into a subterranean cavern, and that they are likely connected by a still-enclosed tunnel. Credit: SAC / ISRO / INDIA, courtesy of A. S. Arya

 

[EarthlingX]

SDC : Photos Inspire Dreams of Underground Moon Exploration

By Zoe Macintosh
SPACE.com Staff Writer

posted: 15 July 2010, 08:21 am ET



Photographs of enormous pits on the moon, some hundreds of feet deep, from unmanned probes have given scientists a tantalizing glimpse into the lunar interior.

Some of the moon holes are wide enough to fit the White House and scientists think they are openings to underground tunnels that had been formed by rivers of lava.

"They could be entrances to a geologic wonderland," said lead researcher Mark Robinson at Arizona State University. "We believe the giant holes are skylights that formed when the ceilings of underground lava tubes collapsed."