Plain Language Summary
The lithosphere of the Moon has been deformed by tectonic processes for at least 4 billion years, resulting in a variety of tectonic surface features. Simple compressional asymmetric landforms are called lobate scarps and complex compressional features, which form as a result of the combination of faulting and folding, are known as wrinkle ridges. Lunar wrinkle ridges only occur within the lunar maria. It has been argued that their formation is linked to the subsidence of the dense mare basalts, which would have happened in the early history of the Moon. We mapped all of these features within one dark lunar region called Mare Tranquillitatis and then studied their morphology on high-resolution images. Based on their morphology, we found a wide time range of tectonic activity, ranging from ancient to recent. Large wrinkle ridges seem to be ancient and influenced by subsidence. Smaller wrinkle ridges and lobate scarps show signs of recent activity. They likely formed recently within the last hundred million years because of the Moon’s current state of global compression.