NASA’s InSight Mars Lander recorded the largest earthquake on Mars.
According to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), an international team reported that on the night of May 4, Earth’s seismometer detected an earthquake at least five times larger than the next largest earthquake on record. on the red planet.
“This was definitely the biggest earthquake we’ve seen,” lead author Taichi Kawamura, a planetary scientist at the Institut de physique du globe de Paris in Paris, said in a statement.
Co-author John Clinton, a seismologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, said that the energy released by a single earthquake is equal to the combined energy of all other earthquakes ever seen.
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Clinton, who co-chairs the earthquake service with Kawamura, said the waves recorded by InSight were so large they nearly saturated the seismometer.
A view of Mars from NASA’s Mars InSight Lander.
(NASA/Twitter)
The waves from the earthquake last for about 10 hours.
The waves of no previous earthquake had lasted more than an hour.
The previous largest earthquake recorded in August 2021 had a magnitude of 4.2, and the May earthquake had a magnitude of 4.7.
The epicenter of the earthquake was outside The most seismically active region on Mars🇧🇷
This seismic event was rare as it exhibited characteristics of both high and low frequency earthquakes.
The dome seismometer on NASA’s InSight Lander has measured the largest earthquake on Mars.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech.)
Data on this major earthquake were released in October by the Mars Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) data service, the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) and the Integrated Institute for Research in Seismology (IRIS) earthquake service catalog.
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On Mars, seismology can help researchers better understand what lies beneath its surface and its evolution.
Most earthquakes are believed to be caused by fault movement.
This image shows the domed Wind and Thermal Shield surrounding InSight’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS, seismometer.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)
InSight is thought to be nearing the end of its life as dust has gradually covered its solar panels and reduced its power.
“We’re almost amazed that at the end of an extended mission we’ve come across this very remarkable event,” Kawamura said.
based on data collected from the earthquake“I would say the mission was an extraordinary success,” he continued.
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“I’m really low on power, so this may be the last picture I can send. Don’t worry about me, though: my time here has been both productive and quiet. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will—but I’ll be signing off here soon.” Insight’s 25-30 person team wrote on Lander’s Twitter account on Monday. “Thanks for staying with me.”
Since landing in November 2018, the lander has provided information on the composition of Mars’ liquid core and other inner layers. He detected hundreds of earthquakes.
Fox News’ Paul Best contributed to this report.
