soio7i2021 ‘Anatomy of the red planet: Mars-quakes reveal inlerior~ ScienceDaily ScienceDaily Your source for the latest research news Science News from research organizations Anatomy of the red planet: Mars-quakes reveal interior Date: July 22, 2021 Source: ETH Zurich Summary: Researchers have been able to use seismic data to look inside Mars for the first time. They measured the crust, mantle and core and narrowed down their composition. Shao: f WPDin | FULL STORY Planet Mars (stock image; elements furnished by NASA), Credit: © Artsiom P/ stock.adobe.com Since early 2019, researchers have been recording and analysing marsquakes as part of the InSight mission. This relies on a seismometer whose data acquisition and control electronics were developed at ETH Zurich. Using this data, the researchers hitpsslww.sciencedally.comireleases/2021107/210722163028.him0107/2021 ‘Anatomy ofthe re plane: Mars-quakes reveal ilerior~ ScienceDaily have now measured the red planet's crust, mantle and core -- data that will help determine the formation and evolution of Mars and, by extension, the entire solar system Mars once completely molten We know that Earth is made up of shells: a thin crust of light, solid rock surrounds a thick mantle of heavy, viscous rock, which in turn envelopes a core consisting mainly of iron and nickel. Terrestrial planets, including Mars, have been assumed to have a similar structure. "Now seismic data has confirmed that Mars presumably was once completely molten before dividing into the crust, mantle and core we see today, but that these are different from Earth's,” says Amir Khan, a scientist at the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich and at the Physics Institute at the University of Zurich. Together with his ETH colleague Simon Stahler, he analysed data from NASA's InSight mission, in which ETH Zurich is participating under the leadership of Professor Domenico Giardini No plate tectonics on Mars ‘The researchers have discovered that the Martian crust under the probe's landing site near the Martian ‘equator is between 15 and 47 kilometres thick. Such a thin crust must contain a relatively high proportion of radioactive elements, which calls into question previous models of the chemical composition of the entire crust. Beneath the crust comes the mantle with the lithosphere of more solid rock reaching 400-600 kilometres down ~- twice as deep as on Earth. This could be because there is now only one continental plate on Mars, in contrast to Earth with its seven large mobile plates. "The thick lithosphere fits well with the model of Mars as a ‘one-plate planet’," Khan concludes. ‘The measurements also show that the Martian mantle is mineralogically similar to Earth's upper mantle. "In that sense, the Martian mantle is a simpler version of Earth's mantle.” But the seismology also reveals differences in chemical composition. The Martian mantle, for example, contains more iron than Earth's However, theories as to the complexity of the layering of the Martian mantle also depend on the size of the underlying core -- and here, too, the researchers have come to new conclusions. The core is liquid and larger than expected ‘The Martian core has a radius of about 1,840 kilometres, making it a good 200 kilometres larger than had been ‘assumed 15 years ago, when the InSight mission was planned, The researchers were now able to recalculate the size of the core using seismic waves, "Having determined the radius of the core, we can now calculate its density,” Stahler says “If the core radius is large, the density of the core must be relatively low," he explains: "That means the core must contain a large proportion of lighter elements in addition to iron and nickel." These include sulphur, ‘oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, and make up an unexpectedly large proportion. The researchers conclude that the composition of the entire planet is not yet fully understood. Nonetheless, the current investigations confirm that the core is liquid ~ as suspected — even if Mars no longer has a magnetic field. Reaching the goal with different waveforms The researchers obtained the new results by analysing various seismic waves generated by marsquakes. "We could already see different waves in the InSight data, so we knew how far away from the lander these quake epicentres were on Mars,” Giardini says, To be able to say something about a planet's inner structure calls for ‘quake waves that are reflected at or below the surface or at the core. Now, for the first time, researchers have succeeded in observing and analysing such waves on Mars. “The InSight mission was a unique opportunity to capture this data," Giardini says. The data stream will end in a year when the lander’s solar cells are no longer able to produce enough power. "But we're far from finished analysing all the data ~ Mars still presents us with many mysteries, most notably whether it formed at the same time and from the same material as our Earth.” Itis especially important to understand how the internal Itps:twsciencedaly.comieleases/2021107/210722163028.him 26sovo7021 Anatomy ofthe red planet: Mars-quakes reveal ilar ~ ScienceDaily dynamics of Mars led it to lose its active magnetic field and all surface water. “This will give us an idea of whether and how these processes might be ocourring on our planet," Giardini explains. "That's our reason why we are on Mars, to study its anatomy.” Story Source: Materials provided by ETH Zurich. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Journal References: 4. Amir Khan, Savas Ceylan, Martin van Driel, Domenico Giardini, Philippe Lognonné, Henri Samuel, Nicholas C. Schmerr, Simon C, Stahler, Andrea C. Duran, Quancheng Huang, Doyeon Kim, Adrien Broquet, Constantinos Charalambous, John F. Clinton, Paul M. Davis, Mélanie Drilleau, Foivos Karakostas, Vedran Lekic, Scott M. McLennan, Ross R. Maguire, Chloé Michaut, Mark P. Panning, William TT Pike, Baptiste Pinot, Matthieu Plasman, John-Robert Scholz, Rudolf Widmer-Schnidrig, Tilman Spohn, Suzanne E. Smrekar, William B. Banerdt. Upper mantle structure of Mars from InSight seismic data Science, 2021; 373 (6553): 434 DOI: 10,1126/science.abf2966 2, Simon C. Stahler, Amir Khan, W, Bruce Banerdt, Philippe Lognonné, Domenico Giardini, Savas Ceylan, Mélanie Drilleau, A. Cecilia Duran, Raphaél F. Garcia, Quancheng Huang, Doyeon Kim, Vedran Leki, Henri Samuel, Martin Schimmel, Nicholas Schmerr, David Sollberger, Eléonore Stutzman, Zongbo Xu, Daniele Antonangeli, Constantinos Charalambous, Paul M. Davis, Jessica C. E. Irving, Taichi Kawamura, Martin Knapmeyer, Ross Maguire, Angela G, Marusiak, Mark P, Panning, Clément Perrin, Ana-Catalina Plesa, Attilio Rivoldini, Cédric Schmelzbach, Géraldine Zenhausern, Eric Beucler, John Clinton, Nikolaj Dahmen, Martin van Driel, Tamara Gudkova, Anna Horleston, W. Thomas Pike, Matthieu Plasman, Suzanne E. Smrekar. Seismic detection of the martian core. Science, 2021; 373 (6553): 443 DO! 10.1126/science.abi7730 3. Brigitte Knapmeyer-Endrun, Mark P, Panning, Felix Bissig, Rakshit Joshi, Amir Khan, Doyeon Kim, Vedran Lekié, Benoit Tauzin, Saikiran Tharimena, Matthieu Plasman, Nicolas Compaire, Raphael F. Garcia, Ludovic Margerin, Martin Schimmel, Eléonore Stutzman, Nicholas Schmerr, Ebru Bozdag, Ana-Catalina Plesa, Mark A. Wieczorek, Adrien Broquet, Daniele Antonangeli, Scott M. McLennan, Henri Samuel, Chloé Michaut, Lu Pan, Suzanne E, Smrekar, Catherine L. Johnson, Nienke Brinkman, Anna Mittelholz, Attilio Rivoldini, Paul M. Davis, Philippe Lognonné, Baptiste Pinot, John-Robert Scholz, Simon Stahler, Martin Knapmeyer, Martin van Driel, Domenico Giardini, W. Bruce Banerdt. Thickness and structure of the martian crust from InSight seismic data. Science, 2021; 373 (6553): 438 DOI: 10.1126/science.abf8966 Cite This Page: MLA APA Chicago ETH Zurich. "Anatomy of the red planet: Mars-quakes reveal interior." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 July 2021, . RELATED STORIES E: Why Does Mercury Have Such a Big Iron Core? July 2, 2021 — A new study disputes the prevailing hypothesis on why Mercury has a big core relative to its mantle. For decades, scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions blew away much of Mercury's rocky hitpsslwwn.sciencedally.comirleases/2021107/210722163028.him 35soio7i2021 ‘Anatomy of the red planet: Mars-quakes reveal inlerior~ ScienceDaily Researchers Use InSight for Deep Mars Measurements ‘Aug. 5, 2020 — Using data from NASA's InSight Lander on Mars, seismologists have made the first direct, measurements of three subsurface boundaries from the crust to the core of the red What's Mars Made Of? May 13, 2020 — Earth-based experiments on iron-sulfur alloys thought to comprise the core of Mars reveal details about the planet's seismic properties for the first time, This information will be compared to Journey to the Center of Mars Feb. 20, 2020 — Scientists have built a new compositional model for Mars. They used rocks from Mars and measurements from orbiting satellites to predict the depth to its core- mantle boundary, some 1,800 km beneath FROM AROUND THE WEB ScienceDaily shares links with sites in the TrendMD network and eams revenue from third-party advertisers, where indicated. Archaean granitoids: an overview and significance from a tectonic perspective Jaana Halla et al., Special Publications, 2017 Martian gullies and their Earth analogues: introduction Susan J. Conway et al., Special Publications, 2018 Structural interpretation of gravity, topography and seismicity Regan L. Patton et al., Special Publications, 2019 Metamorphic Geology: Progress and Perspectives Pierre Lanari et al., Special Publications, 2018 About this title - Crust-Mantle Interactions and Grani Cratons Geological Society of London, Special Publications, 2017 id Diversification: Insights from Archaean Add-on Cannabidiol Treatment for Drug-Resistant Seizures in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Elizabeth A. 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