The largest earthquake to date recorded on Mars – it lasted 10 hours

The largest earthquake ever recorded was in Mars “Caught” his radars NASA Insight. The entire surface of the Red Planet shook, but the epicenter was not detected.

In fact, it was also the longest ever since It lasted for a full 10 hours. “The energy released by this earthquake is equivalent to the total energy of all the other earthquakes we have recorded so far.”said John Clinton, a seismologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland.

InSight registered 4.7 RichterWhile the previous record was from August 2021 with 4.2. That might not sound like much by Earth standards, with the strongest ever being 9.5 on the Richter scale, but we’re talking about a planet that we thought was seismically inactive until InSight started recording in 2019.

According to research published in Geophysical Research Letters, Mars does not have tectonic plates But not even a single global magnetic field, which is a sign that the planet’s interior isn’t particularly active. But the InSight data revealed that earthquakes do occur, which indicates the presence of volcanic activity.

By analyzing seismic waves, scientists are trying to understand the structure of the Martian interior, identifying sedimentary rocks and possible volcanic activity within its crust. The fact that the new epicenter could not be located indicates that it may be related to something hidden beneath the crust.

Also, the fact that this particular earthquake combined high and low frequencies has alarmed scientists, since earthquakes on Mars usually belong to one category or the other.