Largest earthquake ever recorded outside of Earth is detected on Mars

Lander InSight He was sent to Mars in 2018 to learn more about this planet. Literally. Among his tools is a driller capable of sampling up to 5 meters below the surface of Mars. In addition, he has seismograph aimed at analyzing the presence of earthquakes. And it is thanks to this device that NASA has just announced the discovery of the largest earthquake ever detected outside the Earth.

past happened May 4th and, if we compare it with terrestrial units, it would have magnitude 5. Much stronger earthquakes happen on Earth. Without going into details, one of them of magnitude 6 was recently released in Antarctica. While it is true that they can be quite destructive if they are very superficial. For example, an earthquake that strongly shook Murcia, municipality of Lorca in 2011 it had a magnitude of 5.1.

There is not much to destroy on Mars, although robots that walk on its surface could be seen earthquake victims. This time it doesn’t seem to be the case, so we’re left with the most interesting part of what happened. That a strong earthquake has never been recorded outside the Earth before and that it can tell us a lot about Mars. Does this mean that nothing like this happened on another planet? Not at all. We don’t have the tools to detect earthquakes on other planets, and on Mars it only takes a few years. Yes, since 2018 more than 1300 aftershocks recorded on the red planet, none of them are as big as NASA just introduced.

Looking for earthquakes on Mars

In fact, the goals originally set for in sight have been successfully completed in 2020. However, NASA has decided to extend its mission until December 2022. And less bad.

If he stopped collecting data at that time, we would not know what the space agency called “monstrous earthquake”. You could say they’re lovers of hyperbole, but the truth is that even though it’s a moderate earthquake on Earth, it’s very close to the upper limit of what would be expected on Mars.

In fact, so far the strongest earthquake detected by InSight was only magnitude 4.2. The rest were well below these figures.

Now scientists from the InSight project hope they can continue to study the earthquake records to determine where it happened, the nature of its source, and, above all, what can you tell us about the interior of Mars.

The main mission of InSight

We have already seen that the main mission of InSight is to explore the interior of Mars. And that’s why he has a device to detect earthquakes.

Recording the tremors can help understand the structure of the planet’s interior, as it will cause changes in how seismic waves travel or reflect through the planet’s materials. Martian crust, mantle and core.

It’s so powerful that it can give us even more interesting information, so it’s interesting for those in charge of the project. It also arrives at a providential moment as the imminent arrival of Martian winter at its location makes it difficult for its solar panels to get the power it needs to operate properly. At that moment, May 7th, he had no choice but to start working in safe mode. This is designed so that you only use the only energy left for essential tasks. But before that, he left a lot of homework to his creators. The great Martian earthquake happened just in time.