NASA: Mars Lander Picked Up First-Ever ‘Marsquake’

 

The American space agency NASA says its Mars lander has noted¹ what scientists believe was the first “marsquake” ever recorded.

The seismic² signal was measured and recorded on April 6 by NASA’s InSight lander, the space agency announced this week. InSight landed on Mars in November 2018. Its goal is to explore the inside of the red planet and measure geological conditions.

The likely marsquake was picked up by a special device called a seismometer, which is used to measure seismic waves. The device was built for InSight by France’s national space agency.

The seismometer was designed to be extremely sensitive. It aims to differentiate³ between seismic signals coming from inside Mars and activity coming from above the surface, such as wind or meteorite⁴ movements.

“This is the first recorded trembling that appears to have come from inside the planet,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said in a statement. The laboratory is based in Pasadena, California.

Scientists will continue to examine the recording⁵ in an attempt to confirm the exact cause of the signal.

The InSight exploration team released audio of the possible marsquake. For comparison purposes, the audio begins with what NASA scientists say is the sound of wind on Mars.

This is followed by a rising sound thought to be the marsquake.

Scientists say the recorded activity was comparable to a 2.5-strong earthquake on our own planet. Such a small earthquake would likely not even be felt on Earth’s surface. Seismically⁶ active areas in the United States, like southern California for example, experience many similarly small earthquakes each week.

But Bruce Banerdt, an investigator⁷ with the JPL, believes even the small measurement marks an important new beginning. He said InSight’s instrument had already been working effectively to collect “background noise” since landing on Mars.

“But this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology," Banerdt said.

Philippe Lognonné is a geophysics and planetary science professor at the University Paris Diderot in France. He was a lead researcher on the InSight seismometer project. He told the Reuters news agency that the Mars results were very similar to quake activity measured on other planets. “So we are very confident that this is a marsquake,” he said. Lognonné predicted that, in the future, InSight would measure quakes 50 to 100 times larger than the one on April 6.

Quakes on earth happen along faults created by the movement of tectonic plates. Mars and Earth’s moon do not have tectonic plates, but they still experience quakes.

Repeated changes in temperature and size of material inside the planets can create pressure over time. When this pressure becomes intense enough to break the planet’s outer crust, it causes a quake.

Banerdt said InSight’s new finding is a continuation of experiments that began with NASA’s Apollo space program in the 1960s. Apollo astronauts put five seismometers on the moon that measured thousands of quakes between 1969 and 1977. NASA says scientists were able to use that information to learn many new things about the inside of the moon.

Now, the NASA team hopes InSight’s seismometer can provide scientists with valuable information about Mars – and other planets, too. “By studying the deep interior of Mars, they hope to learn how other rocky worlds, including Earth and the Moon, formed,” NASA said in a statement.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

seismic – adj. relating to or caused by an earthquake

geological ?– adj. relating to the study of rocks, soil and the physical structure of the Earth

tremble – n. to shake

confident – adj. certain about one’s ability to do things well

fault – n. a crack in the Earth’s crust

tectonic plates – n. plates that make up the surface of the Earth

crust – n. hard, dry layer on the surface of something

interior – n. the inside part of something

1 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

2 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。

3 differentiate   

vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同

参考例句：

• You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
• He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。

4 meteorite   

n.陨石；流星

参考例句：

• The meteorite in Jilin Exhibition Hall is believed to be the largest in the world.吉林展览馆的陨石被认为是世界上最大的。
• The famous Murchison meteorite smashed into the Australian ground in 1969.1969年著名的默奇森陨石轰然坠落在澳大利亚。

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 seismically   

地震

参考例句：

• The crust and mantle are separated by a seismically determined boundary known as the Moho-discontinuity. 改译为：地壳与地幔的交接处系根据地波走失而确定的一个界面，通称为莫霍界面。 来自互联网
• China's code is now on par with similar codes in seismically active areas of the world. 中国现在施行的标准与世界其他地震活跃地区施行的标准基本一致。 来自互联网

7 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。