(NASA/JPL)
In August and September of this year, the seismograph SEIS of the InSight lander recorded 3 new Marsquakes
One of them became one of the most powerful and long-lasting in the entire period of operation of the device.
The scientists were able to determine the position of the sources of the 2 events. One of them was unusually far from the station.
To date, the InSight station (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) has already operated on Mars 1,005 sols, although the initial service life was 709 sols.
The main scientific instrument of the station is the SEIS seismograph, which recorded more than a thousand seismic events over 2.5 years of operation.
The recording helped researchers understand the approximate structure of Mars, estimate the size and composition of its core, as well as the thickness of the crust.
On September 18, 2021, InSight recorded one of the most powerful and long-lasting marquakes. Its magnitude was 4.2, and the tremors were recorded for almost an hour and a half.
This is the third major seismic event detected by the station in a month.
And on August 25, the seismograph recorded two Marsquakes of magnitude 4.2 and 4.1.
The source of the September tremors has yet to be determined, but the source of the August’s event with a magnitude of 4.2 was located 8.5 kilometers from the device
This is the most distant tremor ever detected.
This means that this source is not associated with the Cerberus Groove fault system, which was the source of the previously recorded tremors and is located 1609 kilometers from the station.
One potential source could be the Mariner Valley canyon system, but scientists need to prove it.
The source of shocks with a magnitude of 4.1 was located at a distance of only 925 kilometers from the station.
At the same time, the nature of the marsquakes themselves also differed.
In the more powerful August event, low-frequency oscillations prevailed, while in the less powerful one, high-frequency oscillations.
It is expected that on September 29, the transmission of commands to the station will stop for several weeks due to the conjunction of Mars with the Sun.
After that period, scientists can conduct a new attempt to clean the solar panels of the device from dust.
During the forced downtime, SEIS will continue to operate and then transmit the collected data to Earth.
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