Moon is shrinking, wrinkling due to quakes

WASHINGTON - The moon is steadily shrinking, causing wrinkling on its surface and moonquakes, according to an analysis of imagery captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, published on Monday.

A survey of more than 12,000 images revealed that lunar basin Mare Frigoris near the moon's north pole - one of many vast basins long assumed to be dead sites from a geological point of view - has been cracking and shifting.

Unlike our planet, the moon doesn't have tectonic plates; instead, its tectonic activity occurs as it slowly loses heat since it was formed 4.5 billion years ago.