CALIFORNIA, iNews.id – Lander NASA InSight has observed more than 500 Mars earthquakes since landing on Mars in 2018. However, there are two glaring holes in its catalog: the lander has not detected any major rumbling sounds.
“We are expecting some quakes of magnitude 4, and perhaps even magnitude 5 at this point, given the number of smaller earthquakes,” Bruce Banerdt, InSight’s principal investigator, told Insider.
By contrast, most earthquakes are so calm that the average Californian doesn’t even notice. The four largest Mars earthquakes felt by the InSight seismometer ranged from 3.1 to 3.6.
So Martian seismologists were getting confused. Either the InSight team just had no luck, or Mars couldn’t produce a massive earthquake at all. For big earthquakes, Banerdt said, “we don’t really know what that means yet.”
The reason scientists are so interested in the motion of Mars is that measuring earthquakes can reveal what the planet’s interior looks like. So far, Insight readings suggest Mars may have an Earth-like layer deep beneath its crust, encased in an outer shell like a moon crushed by an asteroid.
But a very large earthquake will help scientists see deep inside Mars, which could yield clues about how the planets were born and how they evolved over time.
A better understanding of the interior of Mars can be critical in our efforts to discover other worlds that may host life.
Editor: Dini Listiyani
