Mars InSight Lander Finds Volcanic Activity 200 Meters Below Red Planet Surface

InSight lander, which landed on the surface of Mars, has given experts the first peek at what lies under the planet's surface.

The seismometer onboard InSight detects a shallow sedimentary layer sandwiched between cemented rocks formed by lava flows at a depth of a few feet.

It might reveal a great deal about how Mars was formed, how it changed through time, and what geological causes are still in play now. The lava flows, in particular, may be linked to what we know about the planet's volcanic past.

An international team of researchers detailed their study, "The Shallow Structure of Mars at the Insight Landing Site From Inversion of Ambient Vibrations," in the journal Nature Communications.

Scientists Find Volcanic Activity 200 Meters Below the Surface of Mars

According to Market Research Telecast, researchers allegedly found old dry lava flows around 200 meters deep in Martian soil, which might aid in the reconstruction of the planet's volcanic history.

Mount Olympus, the solar system's greatest volcano and peak, with a diameter of 610 kilometers and an elevation of 22 kilometers, more than double that of Mount Everest.

The authors of the new study employed NASA's InSight Mars Lander and a mechanism known as Rayleigh waves, which are commonly used on Earth to provide data about what's underneath the surface through which they flow, as they detect ground vibrations generated by natural forces.

These vibrations arise on our planet from the activity of the seas and from people, while they are created on Mars by the action of the winds.

ALSO READ: NASA's Mars InSight Says Red Planet's Crust Runs About 12 Miles Deep

The planet vibrates as a result of the commotion on the surface. Sensitive sensors can detect these small vibrations that go deep into the ground.

Mars Surface Calmer Than Earth

Cedric Schmelzbach, a geophysicist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and corresponding author of the new report, told Space.com that Mars is substantially calmer than Earth. There is no water on Mars, and the atmosphere is significantly thinner, resulting in a weaker, less mighty wind. Furthermore, although geologists on Earth have access to many stations, they only have one on Mars: the InSight lander.

However, listening to the Red Planet's winds interact with the earth underneath its craters and plains revealed the underlying structure in incredible detail.

According to Schmelzbach, the resolution becomes coarser as the researcher goes deeper. They may discern strata as thick as three feet (one meter) close to the surface. However, it is just a few tens of meters at larger depths.

The map gives a fascinating peek into Martian development over the last several billion years. It displays a layer of deep sediments and large layers of solidified lava, all of which are covered by a 10-foot-thick (3-meter) covering of sandy regolith.

Researchers compared the geology of surrounding craters to the two lava layers that encased this material. They were able to date the origins of those strata to two key times in Mars' geological history, around 1.7 billion and 3.6 billion years ago, using this information.

A 50-foot-thick (15-meter) strip of rocky debris sits on top of the younger lava layer, just below the surface regolith, possibly stirred up from the Martian surface by a prior meteorite impact and subsequently showered back down to the planet's surface.

The scientists want to see whether they can push their approach a bit farther and explore even deeper, within the first few kilometres of Mars' crust, in the future.