Marsquake

Magnetic striping on Earth is often a sign of a region of particularly thin crust splitting and spreading, forming new land in the slowly separating rifts; a prime example of this being the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

However, no clear spreading ridge has been found in this region, suggesting that another, possibly non-seismic explanation may be needed.

The 4,000 km (2,500 mi) long canyon system, Valles Marineris, has been suggested to be the remnant of an ancient Martian strike-slip fault.

[5] The first confirmed seismic event emanating from Valles Marineris, a quake with a magnitude of 4.2, was detected by InSight on 25 August 2021, proving it to be an active fault.

[11] It will also investigate how the Martian crust and mantle respond to the effects of meteorite impacts, which gives clues to the planet's inner structure.

[12][13][14]A faint seismic signal, believed to be a small marsquake, was measured and recorded by the InSight lander on 6 April 2019.

[18] In October 2023 the results of a collaborative international project to scan the surface of Mars for a new impact crater created at the time of the 4 May 2022 seismic event, known as S1222a, was published.

It was estimated that a crater of at least 300m in diameter would be created to produce the seismic waves, which reverberated round the planet for six hours.

[4] The earlier Sol 53 event initially received much interest as a possible marsquake, but was correlated with wind and not considered further.

[22] NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover will act as a seismic source of known temporal and spatial localization as it lands on the surface.