NASA Exploration Intelligence: Peek Under the Surface of Mars with Ambient Noise

Since the unmanned NASA study “Insight” landed on Mars in November 2018, the Marswake Service has been using the seismic map to assess the planet’s seismic activity to make decisions about the planet’s internal structure.

In July, the ETH Zurich team, in collaboration with the Swiss Seismological Service (SED), provided approximate insights into the thickness of Mars, the Martian mantle and the diameter of the fluid center.

Ambient noise instead of deep drilling

However, structures close to the surface could not be determined in this way, except by drilling. Meanwhile, researchers at ETH Zurich have taken it a step further: they used ambient noise (“ambient noise”) on Mars to determine local geography. This technique is used on Earth, for example, to detect whether seismic waves are weakening or amplifying. From this, the seismic risk of a place can be determined and the unstable landslide zones in mountains or lakes can be analyzed.

Although there is ample evidence of noise on earth, Air is the only remaining source of ambient noise for researchers on Mars.

Your geographical results They have now published the history of Mars at a depth of a few dozen to two hundred meters in Nature Communications..

A detailed view of the surface of Mars

Unlike Earth, Mars has never had any active plate tectonics. It is formed by phases of an active volcano. Large areas were covered by basaltic volcanic plateaus. ETH Zurich’s analyzes provide a comprehensive picture of the surface at the Insight landing site. The upper layer consists of three meters of sand (regolith) and 20 meters of loose rock, which is split by a meteorite impact. Below are layers of volcanic eruptions that the publication claims to have covered the planet 1.7 to 3.6 billion years ago.

These volcanic layers are separated by sediments at a depth of 30 to 75 m. The seismic image of the geological layer helped researchers for the first time understand the most important geological events that have occurred at the Insight landing site on Mars over the past three billion years.

(Mac)