A detailed analysis of the quakes' location and spectral character brought a surprise. With epicenters originating in the vicinity of the Cerberus Fossae—a region consisting of a series of rifts or graben—these quakes tell a new story. A story that suggests volcanism still plays an active role in shaping the Martian surface.

Mars shows signs of life and youth

An international team of researchers, led by ETH Zurich, analyzed a cluster of more than 20 recent marsquakes that originated in the Cerberus Fossae graben system. From the seismic data, scientists concluded that the low-frequency quakes indicate a potentially warm source that could be explained by present day molten lava, i.e., magma at that depth, and volcanic activity on Mars. Specifically, they found that the quakes are located mostly in the innermost part of Cerberus Fossae.

When they compared seismic data with observational images of the same area, they also discovered darker deposits of dust not only in the dominant direction of the wind, but in multiple directions surrounding the Cerebus Fossae Mantling Unit.

"The darker shade of the dust signifies geological evidence of more recent volcanic activity—perhaps within the past 50,000 years—relatively young, in geological terms," explains Simon Staehler, the lead author of the paper, which has now been published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Staehler is a Senior Scientist working in the Seismology and Geodynamics group led by Professor Domenico Giardini at the Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich.