First active fault zone found on Mars - National Geographic

First active fault zone found on Mars - National Geographic

Millions of miles away, a robot geologist stands alone on the dusty surface of Mars, listening for faint seismic echoes in the ground below. It’s finger on the red planet’s pulse is sensitive enough to pick up the whoosh of wind, the drone of dust devils, the creak of tectonic cracks, and many other rumbles ricocheting though the planet’s insides.While most of these signals have been indistinct murmurs, two have stood out loud and clear, allowing scientists to trace them back to their source: the first active fault zone yet found on the red planet.Known as marsquakes, the events clocked in between magnitude 3 and 4, according to data from NASA’s InSight lander presented at a recent American Geophysical Union conference. While the two quakes are small by Earth standards, they’re among the largest yet detected on Mars. Scientists were able to trace both quakes to an area known as Cerberus Fossae, a series of deep gashes that lingers some 994 miles to the east of InSight’s landing zone.The results from this work are pending publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and scientists associated with the InSight team declined to comment until after the study’s release. But the announcement of this active fault zone millions of miles away already has earthbound scientists abuzz. (Find out how Mars experts are also investigating mysterious magnetic pulses felt by InSight.)“All the expectations we have and all the models we have to try to explain how active Mars might be can now be benchmarked against this measurement,” says Paul Byrne, a planetary geologist at North Carolina State University who is not part of the InSight team. “Mars has just become a bit more alive to us with these data.” Mars 101 From its blood-like hue to its potential to sustain life, Mars has intrigued humankind for thousands of years. Learn how the red planet formed from gas and dust and what its polar ice caps mean for life as we know it.

2019-12-24 11:00:00Z
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiWWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5hdGlvbmFsZ2VvZ3JhcGhpYy5jb20vc2NpZW5jZS8yMDE5LzEyL2ZpcnN0LWFjdGl2ZS1mYXVsdC1zeXN0ZW0tZm91bmQtbWFyczIv0gF4aHR0cHM6Ly9yZWxheS5uYXRpb25hbGdlb2dyYXBoaWMuY29tL3Byb3h5L2Rpc3RyaWJ1dGlvbi9wdWJsaWMvYW1wL3NjaWVuY2UvMjAxOS8xMi9maXJzdC1hY3RpdmUtZmF1bHQtc3lzdGVtLWZvdW5kLW1hcnMy?oc=5

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