Earthquakes often occur on Earth, so is the same on other planets? For example, is there an earthquake on Mars, the neighbor of Earth?
In fact, scientists earlier estimated that Mars is a planet with few earthquakes, and there will be no earthquakes. This is because the mass of Mars is small, only 1/11 of the earth's mass. Moreover, the two satellites outside Mars, Phobos and Phobos are small in mass, which is not enough to trigger violent activities of lava inside Mars. Therefore, it is generally believed that the interior of Mars is dead silent and earthquakes cannot occur.
However, American media CNET reported on February 24 that American scientists based on the NASA Insight probe's exploration of Mars for the past 10 months shows that the depths of Mars are often restless and not dead silent.
US Insight Mars rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars on November 26, 2018. The seismic detection devices it carries frequently detect seismic activities inside Mars. From April to September 2019, 174 Mars earthquakes were detected in about five months, including 24 magnitude 3 to 4 earthquakes, and the others were small earthquakes below magnitude 3.
is different from earthquakes on Earth. The Mars earthquakes detected by Insight seem to be deep-source earthquakes, which are much deeper than the source locations of most earthquakes on Earth, with an average depth of about 50 kilometers. This is about 5 to 10 times the depth of many Earth's shallow-derived earthquakes.
On Earth, a magnitude 3 earthquake can basically be felt on the ground, but it cannot be felt on Mars, because when it reaches the ground, its propagation distance is already far enough, but a magnitude 4 earthquake may feel slightly.
Researchers said that the frequency of Mars earthquakes is beyond imagination. Through the earthquake detector on Insight, "We finally confirmed that Mars is a seismic planet for the first time." Insight's chief researcher Bruce Bennet also said, "Martian earthquake activity is smaller than the Earth, but more severe than the moon."
Frequent internal earthquakes on Mars indicate that the lava activity inside this planet is more active than scientists had previously imagined, but no larger-level earthquakes on Mars have been detected so far. Scientists believe that the Martian crust is thicker than the Earth's crust and is much stronger than the Earth's crust, and lava can only move in the deepest part of Mars.
In addition, Insight also discovered that the surface of Mars then whirlwinds blew. This vortex storm is like the dust storm we often see, and believes that there may be thousands of such vortex storms on the surface of Mars.
Reference:
Global Network February 25th article "NASA Insight discovered a large number of earthquakes on Mars, which are more violent than the moon"
"The Paper" February 25th article "NASA Insight: There are a large number of earthquakes on Mars, which are more active than the moon's earthquake"
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