Seismic detection of the martian core
Stahler, Simon C.; Khan, Amir; Banerdt, W. Bruce; Lognonne, Philippe; Giardini, Domenico; Ceylan, Savas; Drilleau, Melanie; Duran, A. Cecilia; Garcia, Raphael F.; Huang, Quancheng; Kim, Doyeon; Lekic, Vedran; Samuel, Henri; Schimmel, Martin; Schmerr, Nicho
SCIENCE
2021
VL / 373 - BP / 443 - EP / +
abstract
Clues to a planet's geologic history are contained in its interior structure, particularly its core. We detected reflections of seismic waves from the core-mantle boundary of Mars using InSight seismic data and inverted these together with geodetic data to constrain the radius of the liquid metal core to 1830 +/- 40 kilometers. The large core implies a martian mantle mineralogically similar to the terrestrial upper mantle and transition zone but differing from Earth by not having a bridgmanite-dominated lower mantle. We inferred a mean core density of 5.7 to 6.3 grams per cubic centimeter, which requires a substantial complement of light elements dissolved in the iron-nickel core. The seismic core shadow as seen from InSight's location covers half the surface of Mars, including the majority of potentially active regions-e.g., Tharsis-possibly limiting the number of detectable marsquakes.
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