In a special issue of Nature Geoscience which focuses on Mars science it was announced that MarsQuakes have been measured by InSight’s seismometer. The University of Maryland headline proclaims “First Direct Seismic Measurements of Mars Reveal a Geologically Active Planet.”  While you may hope this means active magma motions and the potential of future volcanic activity, … well… it’s not that exciting.

The force of the local wind was sufficient to obscure seismic signals, and it was only during the still nighttime hours that the seismograph was able to detect often multiple shakes per night. Only one magnitude 4 quake was detected, and the rest of the 450 some odd detections were much smaller. These weak signals weren’t able to penetrate deep into Mars’ crust, so we remain blind to what is deep in Mars, but a picture of the crust is getting slowly built.

While most quakes couldn’t be successfully identified with a specific place, 2 could be tracked back to the Cerberus Fossae region. This long feature on Mars was carved by ancient floods, and then filled with lava flows just 10 million years ago and is still clearly settling out, with cracks in the lava from the quakes.

While it will be interesting to watch what happens, there is no hint that volcanism or anything that exciting is expected. Mars is estimated to be more seismically active than the moon – making it more active than expected – but it is not like Earth.

More Information

• A Year of Surprising Science From NASA’s InSight Mars Mission (NASA)
• Seismic activity on Mars resembles that found in the Swabian Jura (DRL.de)