Dataset Information

The Seismic Signatures of Recently Formed Impact Craters on Mars.

ABSTRACT: We investigated the seismic signatures of recent impact crater clusters on Mars that would be recorded by the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) seismometers. We used a database of 77 measured and dated impact sites, with craters with diameters between 2.1 and 33.8 m, along with inferred impact angle, bolide trajectory, and varying target material properties to empirically scale for the momentum, expected seismic source function, and radiation pattern of impacts. The impact source is simulated in a local 3-D finite difference wave propagation code and coupled to teleseismic distances by scaling the spectra of 1-D global synthetic seismograms. We use the InSight seismometer noise floors to estimate detectability of impact(s) across azimuth and distance. Our experiments reveal that impact clusters have a higher peak corner frequency resulting from energy contributed by smaller craters to the power spectrum. We also find that the time separation between individual impacts in a cluster is small (< 10-15 milliseconds) and a require a seismometer closely situated to the source (< 10 km) and a high sampling rate (> 100 Hz) to resolve individual impacts within the cluster. Two of the clusters in our database (> 20 m effective diameter) would have been detectable by InSight, with the assumptions that the martian background noise and seismic attenuation are both low. Joint detection of surface changes from newly formed crater(s) in images and by InSight will provide precise source locations that are crucial for constraining the internal structure of Mars.

SUBMITTER: Schmerr NC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6999777 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Seismic Signatures of Recently Formed Impact Craters on Mars.

Schmerr N C NC Banks M M Daubar I I

Journal of geophysical research. Planets 20191101 11

We investigated the seismic signatures of recent impact crater clusters on Mars that would be recorded by the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) seismometers. We used a database of 77 measured and dated impact sites, with craters with diameters between 2.1 and 33.8 m, along with inferred impact angle, bolide trajectory, and varying target material properties to empirically scale for the momentum, expected seismic source function, and radiation ...[more]

PMID: 32021742

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Project description:By the end of 2018, 42 years after the landing of the two Viking seismometers on Mars, InSight will deploy onto Mars' surface the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Internal Structure) instrument; a six-axes seismometer equipped with both a long-period three-axes Very Broad Band (VBB) instrument and a three-axes short-period (SP) instrument. These six sensors will cover a broad range of the seismic bandwidth, from 0.01 Hz to 50 Hz, with possible extension to longer periods. Data will be transmitted in the form of three continuous VBB components at 2 sample per second (sps), an estimation of the short period energy content from the SP at 1 sps and a continuous compound VBB/SP vertical axis at 10 sps. The continuous streams will be augmented by requested event data with sample rates from 20 to 100 sps. SEIS will improve upon the existing resolution of Viking's Mars seismic monitoring by a factor of ∼2500 at 1 Hz and ∼200000 at 0.1 Hz. An additional major improvement is that, contrary to Viking, the seismometers will be deployed via a robotic arm directly onto Mars' surface and will be protected against temperature and wind by highly efficient thermal and wind shielding. Based on existing knowledge of Mars, it is reasonable to infer a moment magnitude detection threshold of Mw∼3 at 40∘ epicentral distance and a potential to detect several tens of quakes and about five impacts per year. In this paper, we first describe the science goals of the experiment and the rationale used to define its requirements. We then provide a detailed description of the hardware, from the sensors to the deployment system and associated performance, including transfer functions of the seismic sensors and temperature sensors. We conclude by describing the experiment ground segment, including data processing services, outreach and education networks and provide a description of the format to be used for future data distribution.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11214-018-0574-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Dataset Information

The Seismic Signatures of Recently Formed Impact Craters on Mars.

Publications

The Seismic Signatures of Recently Formed Impact Craters on Mars.

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