(MENAFN– Al Wakeel News)
NASA’s Martian probe, InSight, detected an earthquake that was at least five times larger than the largest earthquake ever recorded on the Red Planet.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 4.7, lasted more than four hours and was unlike any of the thousands of earthquakes previously detected.
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It was the largest Martian earthquake previously recorded, with a magnitude of 4.2, detected in August 2021.
The Mars earthquake, called S1222a, occurred on May 4, 2022 in an unexpected region of Mars, just outside the tectonically active region of Cerberus Fossae.
The quake sent surface seismic waves around the planet’s circumference – the first time they’ve been seen on Mars.
These seismic waves revealed layers of sedimentary and volcanic rocks in the Red Planet’s crust, which could indicate a previous collision with a massive body, such as a meteor or comet, according to a study published Dec. 14 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
John Clinton, study co-author and seismologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, said in a statement: ‘The energy released by this single earthquake is equivalent to the cumulative energy of all the other Mars earthquakes we have.’ . seen so far, even if the event was much further away. From 1,931 kilometers (1,200 miles) away, the waves recorded in InSight were so large that they nearly filled our seismometers.’
Russia Today
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