Seismic Waves Offer New Way to Locate Moon’s Hidden Ice

Scientists from the University of Maryland, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Hawaii have shown that lunar seismic waves can reveal underground water ice. Their study, published in Science Advances, explains that ice‑rich soil is much stiffer than dry regolith, causing seismic vibrations to travel two to three times faster and to reflect back toward surface seismometers. By measuring these speed changes and echoes, a network of lunar seismometers could map the distribution and quantity of ice in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s south pole.

The discovery is timed for NASA’s Artemis program, which plans to land astronauts at the lunar south pole by 2028. Ice in these cold traps could be harvested for drinking water, oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for rocket fuel, dramatically reducing the amount of supplies that must be launched from Earth and supporting longer‑term lunar outposts.