Two Largest Marsquakes To Date Recorded From Planet's Far Side (phys.org) 37
The seismometer placed on Mars by NASA's InSight lander has recorded its two largest seismic events to date: a magnitude 4.2 and a magnitude 4.1 marsquake. Phys.Org reports: The pair are the first recorded events to occur on the planet's far side from the lander and are five times stronger than the previous largest event recorded. Seismic wave data from the events could help researchers learn more about the interior layers of Mars, particularly its core-mantle boundary, researchers from InSight's Marsquake Service (MQS) report in The Seismic Record.
Anna Horleston of the University of Bristol and colleagues were able to identify reflected PP and SS waves from the magnitude 4.2 event, called S0976a, and locate its origin in the Valles Marineris, a massive canyon network that is one of Mars' most distinguishing geological features and one of the largest graben systems in the Solar System. Earlier orbital images of cross-cutting faults and landslides suggested the area would be seismically active, but the new event is the first confirmed seismic activity there.
S1000a, the magnitude 4.1 event recorded 24 days later, was characterized by reflected PP and SS waves as well as Pdiff waves, small amplitude waves that have traversed the core-mantle boundary. This is the first time Pdiff waves have been spotted by the InSight mission. The researchers could not definitively pinpoint S1000a's location, but like S0976a it originated on Mars' far side. The seismic energy from S1000a also holds the distinction of being the longest recorded on Mars, lasting 94 minutes.
Anna Horleston of the University of Bristol and colleagues were able to identify reflected PP and SS waves from the magnitude 4.2 event, called S0976a, and locate its origin in the Valles Marineris, a massive canyon network that is one of Mars' most distinguishing geological features and one of the largest graben systems in the Solar System. Earlier orbital images of cross-cutting faults and landslides suggested the area would be seismically active, but the new event is the first confirmed seismic activity there.
S1000a, the magnitude 4.1 event recorded 24 days later, was characterized by reflected PP and SS waves as well as Pdiff waves, small amplitude waves that have traversed the core-mantle boundary. This is the first time Pdiff waves have been spotted by the InSight mission. The researchers could not definitively pinpoint S1000a's location, but like S0976a it originated on Mars' far side. The seismic energy from S1000a also holds the distinction of being the longest recorded on Mars, lasting 94 minutes.
Neat to see geothermal (Marsothermal?) activity (Score:3)
I wonder what this might mean for potential future colonies and marsothermal power/heat. If there's a particularly active area it might be a good balance that allows some power generation and heating from the planet itself.
Areothermal (Score:5, Informative)
The Martian equivalent of the geo- prefix is areo- (from Ares, the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Mars).
Re: Quit inventing worthless words, fudgepacker (Score:1)
We'll just call these things seismic events for now on.
Also, who took a dump in your corn flakes this morning?
Re: Quit inventing worthless words, fudgepacker (Score:2)
"gay excuses"
You sound like a 7 year old who calls everything he does not like "gay".
Slashdot is for grownups, little one.
Re: (Score:2)
Not a good advert, even for by lamentable standards of the AC community.
Re: Areothermal (Score:2)
Hm, does that imply the geography of mars is areography, and the study of its structure is areology? I've seen "marsquake" quite a bit, but I haven't seen the areo prefix in use.
I guess I'm comfortable with geo across all planetary work because it doesn't literally have the name of another planet in it. (I know there's a difference between planet Earth and ground earth, but it can be confusing nonetheless).
Re: Areothermal (Score:3)
The more general prefix for âoerelated to the groundâ that is planet independent is âoelithoâ. So lithography would be the imaging of the ground on any planet. Unfortunately that term is already used for the practice of producing images using an engraved stone or metal plate to print them. The term âoelithobrakingâ is already used for the unfortunate event where a space craft hits the ground rather harder than it should have.
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No it's not, "litho-" refers to rocks (in contrast to sediments, water, ice ...)
"geo-" refers to the goddess Ge (Gaia, the spelling varies), from when there was no real concept of there being any other planet. The generation of the field names happened when nobody (not even Jules Verne) was considering going to another planet. (Tsiolkovsky [wikipedia.org] opened that mental door about 1900.) I can't think off-hand of a single all-en
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The balanced answer would be that some people talk about areography and areology, and some people talk about the geography and geology of Mars (and may use areology with a wider sense of "the study of Mars"). Wikipedia redirects the areo- words to the corresponding "geo- of Mars" phrases.
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The meanings of words changes over time due to their usage. This is true for all living languages. If you want words with static definitions you want a dead language, like latin.
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There's just no satisfying you fudgepackees, is there?
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Are we sure these aren't being caused by meteorites?
Re: Neat to see geothermal (Marsothermal?) activit (Score:3)
Fairly, the type of wave generated is fairly distinct for impacts and earth/marsquakes. For a start, impact events donâ(TM)t tend to last 94 minutes, but there are other, more subtle indicators too.
There seems to be tectonic activity on Mars. (Score:2)
Sounds like a good time for science - we've found something that doesn't make sense (to me), and that's a learning opportunity - probably just for me, but maybe for everyone.
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Mars does appear to have a liquid core (based on data from this same instrument last year), but quakes can also occur on a completely dead planetary body for various reasons. For example, the planet is slowly cooling down and different materials exhibit different amounts of shrinking as they cool, therefore building tension between geologic layers that will eventually need to be released. But this wouldn't be frequent. Marsquakes were expected to be very rare but this instrument has detected hundreds of the
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And a much nearerr sandslide or meteor strike can resemble other seismic events if they're close enough and the instruments limited. It's going to take sensitive instruments, widely scattered, to gain a thorough understanding of Mars' geology.
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The relative timings of S, P and L waves would differ.
But yes, two more (minimum) seismographs would be needed for a network that can accurately locate any quake (of sufficient magnitude) anywhere on the planet. More seismographs for a lower detection threshold.
Re: Meanwhile billions are starving here on earth (Score:4, Informative)
You realise that space science has dramatically increased crop production on earth, right?
Re: (Score:3)
You realise that space science has dramatically increased crop production on earth, right?
And yet, US farmers are paid to throw away crops, so spare me the morality speech. Your comment is buried in ignorance by the sheer amount of corruption required to keep this Earth-bound clusterfuck going.
And more humans, means one thing; it's only going to get worse.
You can put down that bedtime story book now.
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Ok, so not a huge astrology guy here... (Score:2)
Re: Ok, so not a huge astrology guy here... (Score:1)
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The first paragraph of the summary's quote from the article answers your question:
on the planet's far side from the lander
(Emphasis added.)
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> the planet's far side from the lander
The title is botched, but the article clarifies. Theres only one sensor, and the quake was on the other side of the planet.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. Now, please stay online a few more minutes - I'm having some difficulty locking down your exact geolocation based on your IP and ping times. Please continue posting, I'll try to get over the technical issues involved as quickly as I can.
Damned Worms :-( (Score:2)
What else can I say?
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Superlatives in 4 years? (Score:2)
I'm all for promoting space exploration, but how much value are superlatives at a mission that's been recording what, 3 years?
If I said I just saw "the largest hippo I have ever seen walking down a Minnesota street!" how meaningful is 'largest' in that statement?