MARSQUAKE-MARS MISSIONS

Why in the News?

Just like on Earth, the surface of Mars sometimes vigorously shakes and unsurprisingly, that is called a marsquake and the largest ever such marsquake was recorded in history happened in 2022.

Reason behind the Marsquake:

1. The quake had a magnitude of 4.7 and had seismic signal similar to previous quakes that were caused by meteoroid impacts.
2. However, the possibility that the marsquake was caused by a meteor impact has been ruled out.
3. Mars is smaller than Earth but it has around the same land surface area (144 million square kilometres) as our planet because it has no oceans.
4. All missions in orbit around the red planet have collaborated on a single project for the first time to find the reason for the marsquake 2022.
5. The collaborations were among European Space Agency, (ESA) the Chinese National Space Agency, (CNSA) the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency.
6. The researchers announced, after months of comprehensively searching on the Martian surface that no crater was found.
7. Therefore, the marsquake was concluded to be caused by the release of tectonic forces from within the planet’s interior, indicating that Mars is seismically active.
8. Though it is agreed that Mars doesn’t have any active plate tectonics today, the quake was likely caused by the release of stress within Mars’ crust that accumulated over billions of years of evolution.

InSight Mars lander of NASA:

1. The lander detected the largest quake ever observed on another planet.
2. InSight is not looking for life on Mars, but is studying what Mars is made of, how its material is layered, and how much heat seeps out of it.
3. Study of Mars is significant as to compare Earth and Mars and better understand how a planet’s starting materials make it more or less likely to support life.
4. InSight has detected 1,319 marsquakes since 2018, including a magnitude 5 quake in May 2022
5. Mars doesn't have tectonic plates - its solid crust shrinks over time, creating faults and quakes
6. Quake waves give insights into origin point, timing, and strength of marsquakes
7. Tracking quakes provides understanding of Mars' interior structure and evolution
8. Mars is still active, not geologically dead
9. Strongest quakes come from Cerberus Fossae region with recent volcanic flows
10. This region had landslides likely caused by large quakes
11. Volcanic activity can cause marsquakes even without lava flows
12. No quakes detected from Tharsis volcanoes one-third of Mars away
13. Tharsis may have "shadow zone" blocking quake waves to InSight
14. Shadow zones mean areas can be active but quakes go undetected
15. InSight quake data still provides insights despite shadow zones
16. Some missions studying the possibility of life on Mars include
    1. UAE’s Hope
    2. China’s Tianwen-1
    3. NASA’s Perseverance.