Mars shook for over 6 hours in 2022 and its source is quite shocking

A recent study has revealed that the cause behind the largest marsquake that occurred on 4 May 2022 was not a meteor but something else.

According to the paper published in theGeophysical Research Lettersjournal,two of the most shocking quakes on Mars did not occur because of a meteor or any object from the sky. The most likely explanation is that the tectonic forces within Mars released suddenly.

The marsquake, S1222a, had a magnitude of 4.7 and caused shakings around the planet to resonate for six hours.

Dr Benjamin Fernando, the lead author of the recently published paper, contacted space agencies of various countries to survey the marsquake. But after exploring 144.8 million square kilometres of Mars, Fernando's team could not find a crater, concluding that an asteroid did not cause the tremor. "The most exciting thing about this research has been bringing together researchers from across the world to search for the crater, including those from nations who do not routinely collaborate in space research," he told IFLScience.

The research team InSight concluded that Mars is more geographically active than they expected, as per previous measurements.

However, Dr Fernando believes Mars still does not have active tectonic plates, and the stress release within Mars' crust caused the tremors. He said, "These stresses are the result of billions of years of evolution, including the cooling and shrinking of different parts of the planet at different rates."

"We still do not fully understand why some parts of the planet seem to have higher stresses than others, but these results help us to investigate further. One day, this information may help us to understand where it would be safe for humans to live on Mars and where you might want to avoid it!" he added.

Dr Daniela Tirsch, the science coordinator for the high-resolution stereo camera on board the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, explained, "This experiment shows how important it is to maintain a diverse set of instruments at Mars, and we are glad to have played our part in completing the multi-instrumental and international approach of this study."

Other international collaborators have also echoed these sentiments.

Dr Jianjun Liu, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, "We are willing to collaborate with scientists around the world to share and apply this scientific data to get more knowledge about Mars, and are proud to have provided data from the colour images on Tianwen-1 to contribute to this effort."

(With inputs from agencies)

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