NASA’s InSight lander has detected the largest earthquake ever seen on another planet. With a magnitude of 5, the earthquake was heard on the Red Planet on May 4th.
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“We’ve been waiting for ‘the big quake’ since we installed our seismometer in December 2018,” said Bruce Banerdt, principal investigator for the InSight lander at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory | NASA
“Scientists will analyze this data to learn new things about Mars for years to come,” the researcher said in a statement.
Since the stationary spacecraft landed on Mars in 2018, InSight has detected more than 1,313 earthquakes. The largest so far has recorded a magnitude of 4.2 on August 25, 2021.
In addition to having recorded the movements on a seismograph, the sound of the earthquake was also recorded.
On Earth an earthquake of 5 is considered medium strength, but on Mars it is considered very strong.
On Earth, it is the movement and friction of tectonic plates that create ground tremors.
So how do earthquakes happen on Mars?
According to the explanations provided by CNN, the ground of Mars consists of a single crust which contains faults and cracks. The Red Planet shrinks as it cools. Thus the pressure exerted on its crust would create earthquakes.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory | NASA