MARSQUAKE: Did the Red Planet Shake Rattle and Roll?

Was there recently an “earthquake” on Mars? The surface of the red planet may have been shaken by quakes relatively recently, hinting at the existence of active volcanoes and, more importantly, the possibility of the existence of reservoirs of liquid water, according to a new study.

Using photos taken by NASA’sMars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers studied the tracks made by boulders that fell from a Martian cliff. The number and size of these boulders dropped over a radius of 62 miles from a point along Mars’ Cerberus Fossae faults.

“This is consistent with the hypothesis that boulders had been mobilized by ground-shaking, and that the severity of the ground-shaking decreased away from the epicenters of marsquakes,” said Gerald Roberts of the University of London, the leader of the study.

The patterns the rocks made in the Martian dirt were not consistent with how boulders would scatter if they were left behind by melting ice, said the researchers. Instead, they resembled the boulder falls seen after a 2009 earthquake near L’Aquila, in Italy.

Based on the area that the displaced boulders covered, Roberts and his team estimate the quake’s magnitude at about 7, making it the same as the 2010 Haiti earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people. The marsquake may have been fueled by movements of magma related to the nearby Elysium Mons volcano, the researchers added.

Due to the fact that Martian winds have not wiped out the boulder tracks yet, the scientists further concluded that the marsquake took place in the not-too-distant past, certainly within the last few thousand years of Mars’ 4.5-billion-year history.

The team even makes the case that marsquakes may still be shaking the planet’s surface today. If that’s true, it would be good news for scientists interested in searching for life on our neighboring planet. If active volcanoes are stillpresent there, their heat could melt parts of the planet’s subterranean ice, perhaps forming reservoirs of liquid water…and where there’s water, there may be life.

The new research will be published in the March edition of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets.