One of the last images ever taken by NASA's InSight Mars lander shows its seismometer on the red planet's surface in 2022. A team of scientists suggest that using data from the seismometer and a magnetometer on the lander could help reveal whether liquid water is present deep under the Martian surface.When the seismic waves from tremors pass through different materials, like surrounding rocks or water, they create subtle electromagnetic fields.
The researchers, however, have reason to believe the method will prove more fruitful on Mars, where any layers of rock and dust above the groundwater are liable to be bone-dry. "In contrast to how seismoelectric signals often appear on Earth, Mars' surface naturally removes the noise and exposes useful data that allows us to characterize several aquifer properties," said Tieyuan Zhu, a geophysicist at Penn State and another of the researchers, in the same statement.
The next steps, the researchers say, will be to seek traces of Martian groundwater in measurements that already exist. NASA'slander — which hunted for marsquakes from late 2018 to late 2022 — included both a seismometer and a magnetometer. By combining these two sources of data, the researchers may be able to put their method to the test.
Rahul Rao is a graduate of New York University's SHERP and a freelance science writer, regularly covering physics, space, and infrastructure. His work has appeared in Gizmodo, Popular Science, Inverse, IEEE Spectrum, and Continuum. He enjoys riding trains for fun, and he has seen every surviving episode of Doctor Who.