2023-10-24 16:10:27
This article was originally published in English
Scientists from several missions orbiting the Red Planet studied their satellite data to try to determine the cause of the 4.7 magnitude earthquake.
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A team of scientists believe they have discovered the source of the largest earthquake ever recorded on Mars.
What were originally thought to be massive vibrations caused by a meteor impact are now believed to be a “marsquake” caused by tectonic activity beneath the surface of the Red Planet.
NASA aims to one day send humans to colonize Mars, but there’s a lot to understand about the planet before that’s possible.
One of the key elements is determining where the safe landing zones are. Scientists working on the project say their results could help us understand where humans could land and live safely, and where they should avoid.
The hunt for the source of the 4.7 magnitude temblor, which lasted six hours, was launched after it was recorded by NASA’s InSight exploration mission on May 4, 2022.
According to Michigan Technological University, earthquakes with magnitudes between 2.5 and 5.4 occur about half a million times a year on planet Earth and are often felt by populations, but generally do not cause only minor damage.
The researchers said the seismic signal was similar to tremors known to be caused by meteorite impacts, so the event – named S1222a – was considered to be the cause.
In what is believed to be the first time that all missions orbiting the Red Planet have collaborated on a single project, an international hunt for the suspected impact crater has been launched to confirm the hypothesis.
Teams from the European Space Agency (ESA), the Chinese Space Agency (CNSA), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) and the Oxford University, which led the study, found no evidence of the existence of a crater or the signature of a meteorite impact.
After several months of searching satellite data, the team concluded that the earthquake was caused by tectonic forces within the planet.
“We still think Mars does not have active plate tectonics today, so this event was likely caused by the release of stresses within the Martian crust”says Dr Benjamin Fernando, from the University of Oxford, head of the study.
“These tensions are the result of billions of years of evolution, including the cooling and shrinking of different parts of the planet at different rates”.
He adds that the information researchers collect “can help us understand where it would be safe for humans to live on Mars and where it would be better to avoid doing so”.
Publishing their findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers say the evidence collected suggests Mars is much more seismically active than previously thought.
“This experiment shows how important it is to maintain a diverse set of instruments on Mars, and we are very pleased to have played our part in achieving the multi-instrumental and international approach of this study”says Dr Daniela Tirsch, scientific coordinator of the high-resolution stereo camera on board ESA’s Mars Express space probe.
The S1222a earthquake was one of the last events recorded by InSight before the end of its mission was declared in December 2022.
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