Publications
13 results found
Daubar IJ, Fernando BA, Garcia RF, et al., 2023, Two seismic events from InSight confirmed as new impacts on Mars, The Planetary Science Journal, Vol: 4, ISSN: 2632-3338
We report confirmed impact sources for two seismic events on Mars detected by the NASA InSight mission. These events have been positively associated with fresh impact craters identified from orbital images, which match predicted locations and sizes to within a factor of three, and have formation time constraints consistent with the seismic event dates. They are both of the Very High Frequency family of seismic events and present with chirps (dispersed infrasound/acoustic waves). This brings the total number of confirmed martian impact-related seismic events to eight thus far. All seismic events with chirp signals have now been confirmed as having been caused by impact cratering events. This includes all seismic activity within 100 km of the lander, and two out of the four events with source locations between 100-300 km distance.
Rajšić A, Miljković K, Wójcicka N, et al., 2023, Seismic efficiency and seismic moment for small craters on mars formed in the layered uppermost crust, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Vol: 128, Pages: 1-15, ISSN: 2169-9097
Seismic activity generated by impacts depends on impact conditions and properties of the impact site. Here, we combined mapping of the regolith thickness with numerical impact simulations to better estimate the seismic efficiency and seismic moment generated in small impact events in the uppermost crust on Mars. We used mapping of crater morphology to determine the regolith thickness that craters formed in. We found that local regolith thickness in the late Amazonian units is between 4 and 9 m. Combined with previous estimates for the NASA InSight landing site, we composed a more realistic uppermost crust analog and implemented it in numerical impact simulations. We estimated the seismic efficiency and seismic moment for small craters on Mars impacting a non-porous or fractured bedrock overlaid by 5, 10, or 15 m thick regolith. Seismic energy showed more dependence on target properties. Three orders of magnitude more energy were produced in stronger targets. The seismic moment does not depend on target properties, and we confirm that seismic moment is almost proportional to impact momentum. The resulting seismic moment is in agreement up to a factor of 4 between different target types. We improved the scaling relationships developed from numerical simulations used in seismic moment approximations by constraining its dependence on more realistic target properties.
Posiolova LV, Lognonné P, Banerdt WB, et al., 2022, Largest recent impact craters on Mars: Orbital imaging and surface seismic co-investigation., Science, Vol: 378, Pages: 412-417, ISSN: 0036-8075
Two >130-meter-diameter impact craters formed on Mars during the later half of 2021. These are the two largest fresh impact craters discovered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since operations started 16 years ago. The impacts created two of the largest seismic events (magnitudes greater than 4) recorded by InSight during its 3-year mission. The combination of orbital imagery and seismic ground motion enables the investigation of subsurface and atmospheric energy partitioning of the impact process on a planet with a thin atmosphere and the first direct test of martian deep-interior seismic models with known event distances. The impact at 35°N excavated blocks of water ice, which is the lowest latitude at which ice has been directly observed on Mars.
Garcia R, Daubar I, Beucler E, et al., 2022, Newly formed craters on Mars located using seismic and acoustic wave data from InSight, Nature Geoscience, Vol: 15, Pages: 774-780, ISSN: 1752-0894
Meteoroid impacts shape planetary surfaces by forming new craters and alter atmospheric composition. During atmospheric entry and impact on the ground, meteoroids excite transient acoustic and seismic waves. However, new crater formation and the associated impact-induced mechanical waves have yet to be observed jointly beyond Earth. Here we report observations of seismic and acoustic waves from the NASA InSight lander’s seismometer that we link to four meteoroid impact events on Mars observed in spacecraft imagery. We analysed arrival times and polarization of seismic and acoustic waves to estimate impact locations, which were subsequently confirmed by orbital imaging of the associated craters. Crater dimensions and estimates of meteoroid trajectories are consistent with waveform modelling of the recorded seismograms. With identified seismic sources, the seismic waves can be used to constrain the structure of the Martian interior, corroborating previous crustal structure models, and constrain scaling relationships between the distance and amplitude of impact-generated seismic waves on Mars, supporting a link between the seismic moment of impacts and the vertical impactor momentum. Our findings demonstrate the capability of planetary seismology to identify impact-generated seismic sources and constrain both impact processes and planetary interiors.
Collins GS, Schwarz D, Wojcicka N, et al., 2022, BAYESIAN INVERSION OF IMPACTOR PARAMETERS FROM PROPERTIES OF CRATER CLUSTERS ON MARS, Publisher: WILEY, ISSN: 1086-9379
Rajšić A, Miljković K, Wójcicka N, et al., 2021, Numerical simulations of the Apollo S-IVB artificial impacts on the moon, Earth and Space Science, Vol: 8, ISSN: 2333-5084
The third stage of the Saturn IV rocket used in the five Apollo missions made craters on the Moon ∼30 m in diameter. Their initial impact conditions were known, so they can be considered controlled impacts. Here, we used the iSALE-2D shock physics code to numerically simulate the formation of these craters, and to calculate the vertical component of seismic moment (∼4 × 1010 Nm) and seismic efficiency (∼10−6) associated with these impacts. The irregular booster shape likely caused the irregular crater morphology observed. To investigate this, we modeled six projectile geometries, with footprint area between 3 and 105 m2, keeping the mass and velocity of the impactor constant. We showed that the crater depth and diameter decreased as the footprint area increased. The central mound observed in lunar impact sites could be a result of layering of the target and/or low density of the projectile. Understanding seismic signatures from impact events is important for planetary seismology. Calculating seismic parameters and validating them against controlled experiments in a planetary setting will help us understand the seismic data received, not only from the Moon, but also from the InSight Mission on Mars and future seismic missions.
Fernando B, Wójcicka N, Maguire R, et al., 2021, Seismic constraints from a Mars impact experiment using InSight and Perseverance, Nature Astronomy, Vol: 6, Pages: 59-64, ISSN: 2397-3366
NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission has operated a sophisticated suite of seismology and geophysics instruments on the surface of Mars since its arrival in 2018. On 18 February 2021, we attempted to detect the seismic and acoustic waves produced by the entry, descent and landing of the Perseverance rover using the sensors onboard the InSight lander. Similar observations have been made on Earth using data from both crewed1,2 and uncrewed3,4 spacecraft, and on the Moon during the Apollo era5, but never before on Mars or another planet. This was the only seismic event to occur on Mars since InSight began operations that had an a priori known and independently constrained timing and location. It therefore had the potential to be used as a calibration for other marsquakes recorded by InSight. Here we report that no signal from Perseverance’s entry, descent and landing is identifiable in the InSight data. Nonetheless, measurements made during the landing window enable us to place constraints on the distance–amplitude relationships used to predict the amplitude of seismic waves produced by planetary impacts and place in situ constraints on Martian impact seismic efficiency (the fraction of the impactor kinetic energy converted into seismic energy).
Fernando B, Wójcicka N, Froment M, et al., 2021, Listening for the landing: seismic detections of perseverance's arrival at Mars with InSight, Earth and Space Science, Vol: 8, Pages: 1-21, ISSN: 2333-5084
The entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will act as a seismic source of known temporal and spatial localization. We evaluate whether the signals produced by this event will be detectable by the InSight lander (3,452 km away), comparing expected signal amplitudes to noise levels at the instrument. Modeling is undertaken to predict the propagation of the acoustic signal (purely in the atmosphere), the seismoacoustic signal (atmosphere-to-ground coupled), and the elastodynamic seismic signal (in the ground only). Our results suggest that the acoustic and seismoacoustic signals, produced by the atmospheric shock wave from the EDL, are unlikely to be detectable due to the pattern of winds in the martian atmosphere and the weak air-to-ground coupling, respectively. However, the elastodynamic seismic signal produced by the impact of the spacecraft's cruise balance masses on the surface may be detected by InSight. The upper and lower bounds on predicted ground velocity at InSight are 2.0 × 10−14 and 1.3 × 10−10 m s−1. The upper value is above the noise floor at the time of landing 40% of the time on average. The large range of possible values reflects uncertainties in the current understanding of impact-generated seismic waves and their subsequent propagation and attenuation through Mars. Uncertainty in the detectability also stems from the indeterminate instrument noise level at the time of this future event. A positive detection would be of enormous value in constraining the seismic properties of Mars, and in improving our understanding of impact-generated seismic waves.
Rajšić A, Miljković K, Collins GS, et al., 2021, Seismic efficiency for simple crater formation in the Martian top crust analogue, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Vol: 126, Pages: 1-12, ISSN: 2169-9097
The first seismometer operating on the surface of another planet was deployed by the NASA InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission to Mars. It gives us an opportunity to investigate the seismicity of Mars, including any seismic activity caused by small meteorite bombardment. Detectability of impact generated seismic signals is closely related to the seismic efficiency, defined as the fraction of the impactor's kinetic energy transferred into the seismic energy in a target medium. This work investigated the seismic efficiency of the Martian near surface associated with small meteorite impacts on Mars. We used the iSALE‐2D (Impact‐Simplified Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) shock physics code to simulate the formation of the meter‐size impact craters, and we used a recently formed 1.5 m diameter crater as a case study. The Martian crust was simulated as unfractured nonporous bedrock, fractured bedrock with 25% porosity, and highly porous regolith with 44% and 65% porosity. We used appropriate strength and porosity models defined in previous works, and we identified that the seismic efficiency is very sensitive to the speed of sound and elastic threshold in the target medium. We constrained the value of the impact‐related seismic efficiency to be between the order of ∼10‐7 to 10‐6 for the regolith and ∼10‐4 to 10‐3 for the bedrock. For new impacts occurring on Mars, this work can help understand the near‐surface properties of the Martian crust, and it contributes to the understanding of impact detectability via seismic signals as a function of the target media.
Wojcicka N, Froment M, 2020, nwojcicka/listening-for-landing-SI: listening-for-landing-SI
nwojcicka/listening-for-landing-SI: listening-for-landing-SI
Wojcicka N, Collins G, Bastow I, et al., 2020, The seismic moment and seismic efficiency of small impacts on Mars, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Vol: 125, Pages: 1-20, ISSN: 2169-9097
Since landing in late 2018, the InSight lander has been recording seismic signals on the surface of Mars. Despite nominal pre-landing estimates of 1–3 meteorite impacts detected per Earth year, none have yet been identified seismically. To inform revised detectability estimates, we simulated numerically a suite of small impacts onto Martian regolith and characterized their seismic source properties. For the impactor size and velocity range most relevant for InSight, crater diameters are 1-30 m. We found that in this range scalar seismic moment is 106−1010Nm and increases almost linearly with impact momentum. The ratio of horizontal to vertical seismic moment tensor components is∼1, implying an almost isotropic P-wave source, for vertical impacts. Seismic efficiencies are ∼10−6, dependent on the target crushing strength and impact velocity. Our predictions of relatively low seismic efficiency and seismic moment suggest that meteorite impact de-tectability on Mars is lower than previously assumed. Detection chances are best for impacts forming craters of diameter>10m.
Wojcicka N, 2020, nwojcicka/impact-seismic-source: impact-seismic-source
nwojcicka/impact-seismic-source: impact-seismic-source
Daubar IJ, Lognonné P, Teanby NA, et al., 2020, A new crater near inSight: implications for seismic impact detectability on Mars, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Vol: 125, ISSN: 2169-9097
A new 1.5 meter diameter impact crater was discovered on Mars only ~40 km from the InSight lander. Context camera images constrained its formation between February 21 and April 6, 2019; follow‐up HiRISE images resolved the crater. During this time period, three seismic events were identified in InSight data. We derive expected seismic signal characteristics and use them to evaluate each of the seismic events. However, none of them can definitively be associated with this source. Atmospheric perturbations are generally expected to be generated during impacts; however, in this case, no signal could be identified as related to the known impact. Using scaling relationships based on the terrestrial and lunar analogs and numerical modeling, we predict the amplitude, peak frequency, and duration of the seismic signal that would have emanated from this impact. The predicted amplitude falls near the lowest levels of the measured seismometer noise for the predicted frequency. Hence it is not surprising this impact event was not positively identified in the seismic data. Finding this crater was a lucky event as its formation this close to InSight has a probability of only ~0.2, and the odds of capturing it in before and after images is extremely low. We revisit impact‐seismic discriminators in light of real experience with a seismometer on the martian surface. Using measured noise of the instrument, we revise our previous prediction of seismic impact detections downwards, from ~a few to tens, to just ~2 per Earth year, still with an order of magnitude uncertainty.
This data is extracted from the Web of Science and reproduced under a licence from Thomson Reuters. You may not copy or re-distribute this data in whole or in part without the written consent of the Science business of Thomson Reuters.