Before being rendered inactive by “dust demons,” NASA’s InSight robot made a groundbreaking discovery on Earth’s neighboring planet.
A recent study published in NASA’s Geophysical Research journal examined the strongest earthquake ever recorded during InSight’s four-year mission as a seismic exploration robot on Mars.
This was a magnitude 4.7 earthquake (Moment magnitude scale), which corresponds to several moderate earthquakes on Earth capable of causing buildings to shake.
NASA’s InSight warrior – (Photo: NASA).
While such an event may seem ordinary on Earth, it is exceptionally unusual on another planet, which was previously thought to have a solid crust and no geological activity.
According to Science Alert, this data provides estimates of the global crust thickness of Mars, as well as insights into how the planet generates heat from within.
“From this earthquake, we observed surface waves surrounding Mars up to three times,” said seismologist Doyeon Kim from the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.
By combining data from previous earthquakes, gravitational data, and Martian topography, they estimated that the average global crust thickness of Mars ranges from 42 to 56 km, significantly thicker than Earth’s crust (averaging 24 km) or the Moon’s (34-43 km).
The thinnest part of Mars’ crust is about 20 km, located in the Hellas impact basin, while the thickest reaches up to 90 km in the Tharsis volcanic plateau. The crust in the southern hemisphere extends deeper than in the northern hemisphere, allowing scientists to understand how the planet’s crust has evolved.
Many radiogenic elements that generate heat through decay, including uranium, thorium, and potassium, have also been found abundantly in the crust and mantle, explaining the localized melting spots within Mars.
These factors contribute to an important conclusion: Mars may still be geologically active today.
Geological activity is a crucial factor for the habitability of a planet, as it helps stabilize the environment and climate, provides necessary chemical exchanges for planetary cycles, and activates reactions that initially generate life and sustain it.
Mars is the primary focus of NASA’s series of missions searching for life, with numerous robots investigating evidence of ancient life—or, preferably, something that may still exist today—like Curiosity and Perseverance.
This new discovery adds significant hope to their efforts.
