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NASA InSight Lander Takes Deep Mars Measurements: Seismograph Data Reveals Boundaries From Crust to Core - SciTechDaily
Aug 09, 2020 1 min, 37 secs
August 8, 2020.

An artist’s impression of Mars’ inner structure. The topmost layer is the crust, and beneath it is the mantle, which rests on a solid inner core. Credit: Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech).

Using data from NASA’s InSight Lander on Mars, Rice University seismologists have made the first direct measurements of three subsurface boundaries from the crust to the core of the red planet.

This February 2, 2019 photo shows the robotic arm on NASA’s InSight lander deploying a domed cover that shield’s the lander’s seismometer from wind, dust and extreme temperatures.

“Ultimately it may help us understand planetary formation,” said Alan Levander, co-author of a study published this week in Geophysical Research Letters.

While the thickness of Mars’ crust and the depth of its core have been calculated with a number of models, Levander said the InSight data allowed for the first direct measurements, which can be used to check models and ultimately to improve them.

Finding clues about Mars’ interior and the processes that formed it are key goals for InSight, a robotic lander that touched down in November 2018.

“The traditional way to investigate structures beneath Earth is to analyze earthquake signals using dense networks of seismic stations,” said Deng.

“It uses continuous noise data recorded by the single seismic station on Mars to extract pronounced reflection signals from seismic boundaries,” Deng said.

The first boundary Deng and Levander measured is the divide between Mars’ crust and mantle almost 22 miles (35 kilometers) beneath the lander.

Known as the olivine-wadsleyite transition, this zone was found 690-727 miles (1,110-1,170 kilometers) beneath InSight.

The third boundary he and Levander measured is the border between Mars’ mantle and its iron-rich core, which they found about 945-994 miles (1,520-1,600 kilometers) beneath the lander.

Reference: “Autocorrelation Reflectivity of Mars” by Sizhuang Deng and Alan Levander, 4 August 2020, Geophysical Research Letters

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