Tristan Bergen 27.05.2023 11:00 5 mins 
The geology and structure of the planet Mars is still relatively unknown, but important new discoveries were made thanks to a single seismic event in May 2022
Last year, the strongest earthquake ever observed on the red planet was recorded by the Insight mission’s seismometer. if his Magnitude of 4.6 on the Richter scale is to date This earthquake is the largest ever recorded on the planet or any other planet in the solar system. It has allowed scientists to obtain partially unpublished information about the structure and internal geology of Mars.
An earthquake brings new information about the structure of the planet Mars
This powerful earthquake (for the planet Mars) occurred on May 22, 2022 and could therefore be detected by the probes of the Insight mission, which completed its analyzes of the red planet last December after five years of duration. In addition to high magnitude, The waves from this earthquake also covered the entire surface of Mars, orbiting the planet about three times before dissipating.
This made it possible to obtain provide complete seismic data for the entire planet Mars, which has not been possible until now. In fact, up until this earthquake, the geological survey of our neighbor was done using meteorite impacts precise but regional seismic data and which therefore did not make it possible to fully visualize the Red Planet.
By measuring the speed of propagation of waves from the May 22, 2022 earthquake on the planet at different frequencies, scientists were able to determine the following a global vision of the planet and an overview of its internal structure. This is how geologists could estimate it The crust of Mars averaged 42 to 56 km thick. In comparison, the thickness of the earth’s crust is average 21 to 27km and the thickness of the moon’s crust of 34 to 43km.
This earthquake was also able to reveal that The northern hemisphere of Mars has a thinner crust than the southern part. Until now, scientists thought that the difference in topography between the north and south of the planet (Mars dichotomy) was explained by a difference in the composition of the rocks of the two hemispheres, but this earthquake and the resulting data showed that this was not the case, The crust of Mars is simply much thicker in the southern hemisphere of Mars.
This discovery is very interesting and ends a long-standing scientific debate about the origin and structure of the Martian crust.
In addition to these differences in the thickness of the Martian crust between its two hemispheres, strong contrasts could also be identified by the region of the planet. Scientists were able to determine that the crust of the red planet is only one only 10km at the Isidis impact basin but that this thick reached up to 90 km in Tharsis province (near Mount Olympus, the tallest volcano in the solar system).
Mount Olympus, the largest volcano in the solar system, lies in a region where the crust of Mars is particularly thick.
Finally, the thickness of Mars’ crust also says a lot about how the planet generates its heat thermal history. Mars actually has it no tectonic activity, probably a one-plate planet. The main heat source of the red planet is the decay of the radioactive elements that make up its rocks such as thorium, uranium and potassium.
That’s what the data showed 50 to 70% of these heat sources are hidden in the Martian crustwhich would explain why there are subsurface regions where rock melting (and hence volcanic activity) is still active today.