Earthquakes on Mars

When the ground shakes beneath our feet, we are experiencing earthquakes. Through scientific measurement and investigation of these motions, we now basically understand the earthquake process and the structure of the Earth. Each subsequent earthquake we measure provides additional information that allows us to improve our picture of the Earth’s internal structure.

We expect similar seismic processes occur on other rocky bodies in our solar system, including Mars. Snapshot 09 introduces the "InSight" mission, with the objective to explore the interior of Mars. The key component of this project is a sensitive seismometer that will be placed on the planet in order to record ‘marsquakes’ for the first time.