Overview

• The peer-reviewed study, published September 11 in National Science Review by teams from Sun Yat-sen University, Fuzhou University and Shanghai Normal University, identifies fresh surface changes on the Moon.
• Researchers compared 562 pairs of sub‑meter satellite images at 74 previously unstable locations and documented 41 landslides formed since 2009.
• Most events occurred on steep 24–42° slopes such as crater walls, wrinkle ridges and volcanic patches, with a notable cluster in the eastern Mare Imbrium basin.
• Fewer than 30% of new impact craters coincide with the landslides, supporting endogenic moonquakes as the dominant trigger rather than meteoroid strikes.
• Typical slides measure about 1 km long, 100 m wide and 1 m deep (~100,000 m³), and the authors note lunar shaking can last for hours, informing plans for a Chang’e‑8 seismometer in 2029 and China’s proposed south‑pole research station by 2035.