seismic data tagged posts

Scientists Find Oceans of Water on Mars. It’s just Too Deep to Tap.

a triangular wedge of Mars hangs over a photo of planet, with a fly-like model on top
A cutout of the Martian interior beneath NASA’s Insight lander. The top 5 kilometers of the crust appear to be dry, but a new study provides evidence for a zone of fractured rock 11.5-20 km below the surface that is full of liquid water — more than the volume proposed to have filled hypothesized ancient Martian oceans. James Tuttle Keane and Aaron Rodriquez, courtesy of Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Using seismic activity to probe the interior of Mars, geophysicists have found evidence for a large underground reservoir of liquid water—enough to fill oceans on the planet’s surface.

The data from NASA’s Insight lander allowed the scientists to estimate that the amount of groundwater could cover the entire planet to a depth of between 1 and 2 kilometers, or about a mile.

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Anatomy of the Red Planet: Mars-quakes Reveal Interior

Using seismic data, researchers have now measured the red planet’s crust, mantle and core (Graphic: Chris Bickel/Science, Data: InSight Mars SEIS Data Service (2019). Reprinted with permission from AAAS)

Researchers have been able to use seismic data to look inside Mars for the first time. They measured the crust, mantle and core and narrowed down their composition. Since early 2019, researchers have been recording and analysing marsquakes as part of the InSight mission. This relies on a seismometer whose data acquisition and control electronics were developed at ETH Zurich. Using this data, the researchers have now measured the red planet’s crust, mantle and core — data that will help determine the formation and evolution of Mars and, by extension, the entire solar system.

We kno...

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