The shallow structure of Mars at the InSight landing site from inversion of ambient vibrations

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 6756
• Main Authors: Hobiger, M, Hallo, M, Schmelzbach, C, Stähler, S C, Fäh, D, Giardini, D, Golombek, M, Clinton, J, Dahmen, N, Zenhäusern, G, Knapmeyer-Endrun, B, Carrasco, S, Charalambous, C, Hurst, K, Kedar, S, Banerdt, W B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 23.11.2021; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Basalt; Ellipticity; Lava; Lava flows; Mars; Mars surface; Plains; Planetary geology; Rayleigh waves; Regolith; Seismology; Stacks; Surface waves; Velocity; Vibrations; Wave energy; Wave power
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26957-7

Orbital and surface observations can shed light on the internal structure of Mars. NASA's InSight mission allows mapping the shallow subsurface of Elysium Planitia using seismic data. In this work, we apply a classical seismological technique of inverting Rayleigh wave ellipticity curves extracted from ambient seismic vibrations to resolve, for the first time on Mars, the shallow subsurface to around 200 m depth. While our seismic velocity model is largely consistent with the expected layered subsurface consisting of a thin regolith layer above stacks of lava flows, we find a seismic low-velocity zone at about 30 to 75 m depth that we interpret as a sedimentary layer sandwiched somewhere within the underlying Hesperian and Amazonian aged basalt layers. A prominent amplitude peak observed in the seismic data at 2.4 Hz is interpreted as an Airy phase related to surface wave energy trapped in this local low-velocity channel.