JAKARTA – New facts about Mars has been included in the latest study, it is stated that there is evidence of volcanic activity under the surface of the Red Planet.
The study says that the movement of hot magma there has triggered marsquakes, which are similar to earthquakes, in certain areas of the Red Planet.
If true, the findings would lend credence to the theory that other life might exist beneath the Martian soil. This is because the warm magma below the surface and groundwater that is thought to be there can become a habitat for foreign microbes.
The study, carried out by researchers at the Australian National University (ANU), made the findings after combing through data from NASA’s InSight Mars mission.
InSight itself, an unmanned robot the size of a car that has been living on the planet since 2018, has managed to detect Martian earthquakes.
So far, scientists understand quite a bit about underground vibrations, and they hope that by using InSight data they can get a better idea of Mars’ conditions.
The new research, published in Nature Communications, uncovers 47 previously undetected Martian earthquakes beneath the Martian surface.
The quakes were found in Cerberus Fossae – a seismically active region on Mars that is less than 20 million years old. The study’s authors speculated that volcanic activity in the planet’s inner layers was the cause of the newly detected earthquake.
If true, the findings suggest magma in the Martian mantle is still active. Previously, scientists had argued – similar to those on Earth – the earthquake was the result of the strong tectonic forces of Mars.
The repetitive nature of these quakes and the fact that they were all detected in the same area, suggest that Mars is more seismically active than scientists previously thought.
