LANDSLIDE SUSCEPTIBILITY MAPPING IN LUNAR SOUTH POLE REGION

The study addresses a challenge in planetary exploration, focusing on landslide susceptibility on the Lunar South Pole Region (LSPR), fundamental for future lunar missions. Features like permanently shadowed regions and water ice deposits attract scientific attention but issues related to rugged terrain and dynamic geological processes must also to be considered. The photointerpretation of data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, allowed to create a landslides inventory map. The Frequency Ratio (FR) model was applied to generate a landslide susceptibility map (LSM). Geological and morphological factors were derived from existing maps and LRO data. Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) variation and epicentral distance were used to define seismic hazard zones. LSM accuracy was evaluated using the Area Under the Curve (AUC) method. The study allows to identify geological formations susceptible to seismic-induced landslides, aiding site selection for future lunar missions. This interdisciplinary approach integrates planetary geology, remote sensing, and GIS software and it contributes to lunar exploration and exploitation for scientific and resource purposes allowing to optimize the Moon involvement in solar system exploration.