Imagine you could find water on the moon just by listening to it shake. That's exactly what a team of geologists has figured out — and it could change everything about how humans live and work in space.
Scientists from the University of Maryland, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of Hawaii discovered that seismic waves — the same kind of vibrations scientists measure during earthquakes — can reveal hidden ice buried beneath the lunar surface. Their study, published in the journal Science Advances on July 31, 2026, arrives at a crucial time. NASA's Artemis program plans to land astronauts near the moon's south pole in 2028, and finding local water would let future crews drink it, breathe oxygen extracted from it, and even turn it into rocket fuel. That means far less cargo needing to launch from Earth.
"It's crucial to identify any materials on the moon that an astronaut can make use of while they're up there," said Nicholas Schmerr, an associate professor at the University of Maryland and a co-author of the study. "Since they will be limited by the few resources they brought from Earth, anything they find on the moon will help them basically live off the land, especially for longer-term missions or outposts."
The science behind it is elegant: frozen soil and dry soil respond very differently when vibrations pass through. Ice makes ground stiffer, causing waves to travel two to three times faster than through dry dirt. Ice-rich zones also bounce vibrations back rather than letting them pass through — much like an echo bouncing off a wall. The researchers proved this works through three different approaches. Lead author Harrison Lisabeth froze volcanic rock from Arizona that mimics moon dust and used X-rays to watch how ice settles between soil grains. Matthew Siegler from the University of Hawaii built detailed temperature maps of the moon's south pole, showing which craters stay cold enough to preserve ice for billions of years. Schmerr ran computer simulations of moonquakes rippling through underground ice. Every test showed the same thing: ice leaves clear, measurable marks on seismic data.
"We can use seismic waves to not just see whether ice is present but also roughly how much of it there is," Schmerr explained.
The discovery isn't just useful for astronauts. The moon's shadowed craters have trapped water ice undisturbed for billions of years — and because lunar rocks themselves date back about 4 billion years, studying that ice could reveal how water first arrived in our solar system, including the oceans on Earth.
"The moon witnessed some of the most critical parts of the early solar system, including how water was delivered," Schmerr said. "Studying the ice deposited there could reveal how water spread and ultimately how Earth's oceans formed."
Researchers won't have to wait long to test their predictions. China's Chang'e-7 mission, carrying a seismometer, is expected to land near Shackleton Crater in late 2026, where scientists suspect ice deposits exist. Then, in 2028, NASA's Artemis astronauts may deploy the Lunar Environmental Monitoring Station — an instrument Schmerr helped design for seismic exploration.
"Our findings are laying the groundwork for an observation we'll get in the next couple of years," Schmerr said. "No one has physically measured the ice on the moon…"