NASA’s Mars lander InSight has for the first time identified ‘Mars quakes’ with a magnitude above four. One of the quakes on the Red Planet lasted 90 minutes.
The largest Martian quake had a magnitude of 4.2, the spacecraft observed. Previously, the record stood on a 2019 quake with a magnitude of 3.7. According to the space agency, there have been three major Martian earthquakes in recent times with a magnitude above four.
With InSight’s research on the Red Planet, geologists hope to find out how Mars is built.
The Earth consists of plates that shock and slide along, against, over and under each other, causing earthquakes. Mars doesn’t have these tectonic plates as far as we know.
InSight was launched in May 2018 and in november of that year the spacecraft landed on the surface of Mars. In total, the Mars Lander has detected more than 700 quakes on the Red Planet. The lander also researches the planet’s atmosphere and magnetic fields.
