Seismologists and geophysicists at ETH Zurich have been monitoring more than 1,300 martian quakes since 2018, when the NASA InSight Mission placed the SEIS seismometer on the planet’s surface. The Mars quakes kept getting bigger and bigger, the researchers noticed. A surprise resulted from a thorough examination of the quakes’ epicenter and spectral nature. These earthquakes, whose epicentres are located in the Cerberus Fossae, a region made up of several rifts or graben, provide fresh information. A report claims that vulcanism is still actively altering the Martian surface.
Mars exhibits evidence of geological life
An analysis of a cluster of more than 20 recent marsquakes that originated in the Cerberus Fossae graben system was conducted by an international team of researchers under the direction of ETH Zurich. Scientists deduced from the seismic data that the low-frequency quakes point to a potentially warm source that may be explained by magma at that level that is molten now and volcanic activity on Mars. They found, for example, that most of the earthquakes happen in the innermost part of Cerberus Fossae.
They also found darker dust deposits encircling the Cerebus Fossae Mantling Unit when they matched seismic data with observational photos of the same region. These deposits were found in numerous directions, not just in the direction of the predominant wind. The lead author of the article, Simon Staehler, adds that the darker tint of the dust represents geological evidence of more recent volcanic activity, possibly within the last 50,000 years, which is rather young in geological terms. Senior Scientist Staehler works at the Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich, in the Seismology and Geodynamics group under the direction of Professor Domenico Giardini.
Why study the terrestrial neighbour?
It’s not simple to investigate the planets that are close to Earth. In addition to Earth, Mars is the only planet where researchers have ground-based rovers, landers, and now even drones that relay data. Other than this, all planetary exploration has relied on orbital imaging. Domenico Giardini claims that InSight’s SEIS is the most sensitive seismometer ever set up on another planet. It gives geophysicists and seismologists a chance to work with up-to-date information illustrating what is occurring on Mars right now, both at the surface and inside. The seismic data and orbital photos give us more reason to trust the scientific conclusions.
Understanding Mars geological, one of our closest neighbors on the planet, is crucial for comprehending Earth’s geological processes that are similar to Mars’. The only planet with a core made of iron, nickel, and sulfur that may have ever maintained a magnetic field is the red planet, as far as we are aware. The topography of Mars suggests that it formerly had enormous areas of water and perhaps a richer atmosphere. Scientists have discovered that its polar caps still contain frozen water, possibly primarily in the form of dry ice. Anna Mittelholz, a postdoctoral fellow at ETH Zurich and Harvard University, says that the idea of magma on Mars is interesting.
The final traces of geophysical life
It is difficult to conceive that Mars was extremely lively, at least in a geophysical sense, 3.6 billion years ago while viewing photographs of the vast, dusty, and barren Martian surface. The Tharsis Montes region, the largest volcanic system in our solar system, and the Olympus Mons volcano, which is roughly three times higher than Mount Everest, were both created as a result of the long-lasting volcanic debris eruption. According to the earthquakes emanating from the neighboring Cerberus Fossae, which got its name from the “hell-hound of Hades” from Greek mythology that guards the underworld, Mars may still be alive. Similar to the cracks that form on the top of a baked cake, the weight of the volcanic region is pulling the crust of Mars apart here by sinking and generating parallel graben (or rifts). It’s possible, according to Staehler, that what we are seeing is the last of this once-active volcanic zone or that the magma is currently traveling eastward to the next eruptive site.
This project was done by scientists from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin, Caltech, Nantes University, Harvard University, and ETH Zurich.
