Mars reveals liquid core as scientists measure first seismic waves

Written by Copernical Team Tuesday, 25 April 2023 10:06

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Washington DC (UPI) Apr 25, 2023

Scientists have confirmed that Mars' core is liquid as seismic wave measurements have given valuable first-time clues about how the Red Planet was formed. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show Mars' core is a completely liquid iron-alloy core with high percentages of sulfur and oxygen, unlike Earth's core, which is a combination of a liquid

Mars reveals liquid core as scientists measure first seismic waves
by Sheri Walsh
Washington DC (UPI) Apr 25, 2023

Scientists have confirmed that Mars' core is liquid as seismic wave measurements have given valuable first-time clues about how the Red Planet was formed.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show Mars' core is a completely liquid iron-alloy core with high percentages of sulfur and oxygen, unlike Earth's core, which is a combination of a liquid outer core and a solid inner core.

It took an international research team, which included University of Maryland seismologists, to measure Mars' core properties using seismic data from the NASA InSight lander mission, which ended in December.

"In 1906, scientists first discovered the Earth's core by observing how seismic waves from earthquakes were affected by traveling through it," UMD Associate Professor of Geology Vedran Lekic, and second author of the paper, said in a statement.

"More than a hundred years later, we're applying our knowledge of seismic waves to Mars. With InSight, we're finally discovering what's at the center of Mars and what makes Mars so similar yet distinct from Earth," Lekic added.

Researchers tracked InSight's seismic data, which detected two distant events on Mars including a Marsquake and a meteor strike.

"Nobody's ever seen before a seismic wave going through Mars' core," said seismologist Jessica Irving from the University of Bristol in Britain. "We waited for more than 900 days for one quake on the far side," she said. Then "24 days later, there was a meteorite impact."

Scientists measured the time it took for those seismic waves to travel through Mars and compared them to waves that stayed in the mantle. With that information, they were able to estimate the density of the planet's core and determine its chemical makeup of sulfur and oxygen.

"You can think of it this way; the properties of a planet's core can serve as a summary about how the planet formed and how it evolved dynamically over time," said UMD Associate Professor of Geology Nicholas Schmerr, who was also a co-author of the paper.

While the core reveals Mars does not currently have a magnetic field, traces of magnetism in Mars' crust reveal it may have at one time, according to Schmerr.

"The uniqueness of Earth's core allows it to generate a magnetic field that protects us from solar winds, allowing us to keep water. Mars' core does not generate this protective shield, and so the planet's surface conditions are hostile to life."