If you need more proof that human beings wreak havoc wherever they go, you can look all the way to the moon.

Caltech scientists recently published some research on how earthquake activity has changed over the past fifty years and found something interesting in the process – like the fact that the Apollo 17 base could have affected seismic activity in space.

The scientists found that the lunar surface expands and contracts based on the Moon’s surface temperature. It’s a big range, from 250 degrees to negative 208 degrees, as it has no atmosphere to insulate it.

They placed three seismometer arrays near the lunar base and recorded activity between October 1976 and May 1977. The research is only now being examined, however, and even published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets.

The Caltech researchers used AI to find additional seismic signatures alongside the usual tremors. They seemed to be coming from the Apollo 17 base, which was expanding and contracting along with the lunar surface.

Allen Husker, co-author of the study, released a statement.

“Every lunar morning when the Sun hits the lander, it starts popping off. Every five to six minutes another one, over a period of five to seven Earth hours. They were incredible regular and repeating.”

He and the other researchers are hoping for an opportunity to place additional seismometers in an attempt to learn more.

“If we could put up a few seismometers on the lunar south pole, we could look for water ice that may be trapped in the subsurface. Seismic waves travel slower through water.”

India has put a seismometer on the moon recently and has indeed detected seismic activity as well.

“The Moon is the only planetary body other than the Earth to have had more than one seismometer on it at a time. It gives us the only opportunity to thoroughly study another body.”

Curious, to be sure.

But if there was a change 50 years ago, it’s almost certain we were to blame.