NASA InSight Detects Potential Marsquakes

NASA issued a press release on April 1, 2021, announcing that the InSight lander had detected two potential marsquakes that are good candidates for being the result of interior activity within the planet.

NASA’s InSight lander has detected two strong, clear quakes originating in a location of Mars called Cerberus Fossae – the same place where two strong quakes were seen earlier in the mission. The new quakes have magnitudes of 3.3 and 3.1; the previous quakes were magnitude 3.6 and 3.5. InSight has recorded over 500 quakes to date, but because of their clear signals, these are four of the best quake records for probing the interior of the planet.

Studying marsquakes is one way the InSight science team seeks to develop a better understanding of Mars’ mantle and core. The planet doesn’t have tectonic plates like Earth, but it does have volcanically active regions that can cause rumbles. The March 7 and March 18 quakes add weight to the idea that Cerberus Fossae is a center of seismic activity.

“Over the course of the mission, we’ve seen two different types of marsquakes: one that is more ‘Moon-like’ and the other, more ‘Earth-like,’” said Taichi Kawamura of France’s Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, which helped provide InSight’s seismometer and distributes its data along with the Swiss research university ETH Zurich. Earthquake waves travel more directly through the planet, while those of moonquakes tend to be very scattered; marsquakes fall somewhere in between. “Interestingly,” Kawamura continued, “all four of these larger quakes, which come from Cerberus Fossae, are ‘Earth-like.’”

There is apparently still some debate as to whether what is being detected on Mars is activity within the interior of the planet, or could alternately be caused by meteorites striking the surface of the planet.

Mars’ Korolev Crater

This image of the Korolev crater on Mars is based on data from The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbital spacecraft.

The Korolev crater is 82 kilometers wide and filled with an estimated 2,220 cubic kilometers of ice.

Image of Korolev Crater on Mars Based on Data from The European Space Agency's Mars Express
Image of Korolev Crater on Mars Based on Data from The European Space Agency’s Mars Express