NASA's InSight lander makes first ever map of Mars' underground

WASHINGTON: NASA's Mars InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander has developed the first ever map of the underground of the Red Planet by listening to winds.

The InSight lander arrived on Mars on November 26, 2018, touching down in the Elysium Planitia region — the second largest volcanic region on the Red Planet.

Geophysicists from ETH Zurich and University of Cologne, used seismic data to analyse the composition of the Elysium Planitia region.

The data suggested the presence of a shallow sedimentary layer sandwiched between lava flows beneath the planet's surface.

The team examined the shallow subsurface to around 200 metres in depth.

Right beneath the surface, they discovered a regolith layer of dominantly sandy material approximately three metres thick above a 15 metre layer of coarse blocky ejecta — rocky blocks that were ejected after a meteorite impact and fell back to the surface. Below these top layers, they identified around 150 metres of basaltic rocks, that is, cooled and solidified lava flows, which was largely consistent with the expected subsurface structure.

However, between these lava flows, starting at a depth of about 30 metres, the team identified an additional layer 30 to 40 metres thick with low seismic velocity, suggesting it contains weak sedimentary materials relative to the stronger basalt layers.

Further, they found that the shallower lava flows are approximately 1.7 billion years old, forming during the Amazonian period — a geological era on Mars characterised by low rates of meteorite and asteroid impacts and by cold, hyper-arid conditions, which began approximately 3 billion years ago. (IANS)

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