Home » NASA detects a major earthquake on Mars for the first time in 90 minutes | InSight | Mars Earthquake

NASA detects a major earthquake on Mars for the first time in 90 minutes | InSight | Mars Earthquake

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[Epoch Times September 30, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Di Rui compiled a report) Since the InSight probe landed on Mars in November 2018, the strongest Martian earthquake detected was only 3.7 magnitude. The data sent back recently detected several earthquakes of magnitude 4 or higher on Mars for the first time, one of which lasted nearly 90 minutes.

InSight is a fixed probe launched by NASA to land on Mars, located in the Elysium Planitia of Mars. One of InSight’s main mission is to detect seismic signals on Mars.

NASA’s newly announced news said that on September 18, a magnitude 4.2 earthquake occurred on Mars and lasted for up to 90 minutes. And this day happened to be the 1000th Martian day of InSight landing on Mars.

This is also the third major earthquake on Mars detected by InSight in the past month: on August 25, two earthquakes of magnitude 4.2 and 4.1 were detected respectively.

Prior to this, the strongest earthquake on Mars detected by InSight was a magnitude 3.7 earthquake in 2019. NASA said the energy released by the earthquake detected on September 18 was five times that of the 2019 earthquake.

Just like X-ray or CAT scans are used in medicine to detect the human body, scientists use Martian seismic information to probe the structure of the Martian core and the history of Martian evolution.

So far, InSight has detected more than 700 earthquakes on Mars. Through the analysis of these data, scientists believe that the crust of Mars is thinner than expected. Comparing with the celestial bodies we are familiar with, the crust of Mars is more like that of the moon: after being hit by an asteroid over a long period of time, many cracks have been produced.

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Researchers analyzed that because the Martian crust is very dry and there are many cracks, the earthquake on Mars lasts much longer than that on Earth. Earthquake signals reverberate continuously between different cracks, and there is no moisture to play the “shock absorption” effect. Therefore, the duration of an earthquake detected on Mars is generally about 10 to 40 minutes. ◇

Editor in charge: Zhu Hanru

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