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The morphology of the Large Low Shear Velocity Provinces (LLSVPs) has been a subject of debate for decades. Large-scale features of the Pacific LLSVP, as revealed by cluster analysis of global tomographic models, suggest three distinct portions. Notably, the East Pacific Anomaly and the Superswell Anomaly are characterized by a ~20 deg wide gap. The cause of the structural gap remains unclear, and there has been no direct evidence for a subduction episode beneath the region. In this study, we take advantage of an up-to-date SS precursor data set that samples the Nazca Plate and investigate the high-resolution seismic structure at mantle transition zone (MTZ) depths. We find that much of the southern East Pacific Rise is underlain by a thin MTZ due to the depressed 410 by up to 15 km, which suggests along-ridge temperature variations extending into the MTZ. East of the East Pacific Rise, the MTZ is characterized by anomalous thickening and fast seismic velocities from seismic tomography, consistent with the presence of cold subducted slab material intersecting the MTZ. Furthermore, recent global tomographic models reveal a slab-like structure throughout the MTZ and lower mantle, which is also evidenced by tomographic vote maps, albeit with less visibility. The observations reconcile with Mesozoic intraoceanic subduction beneath the present-day Nazca Plate, which is predicted by an earlier plate reconstruction model of proto-Pacific Ocean. The subduction initiated ~250 Myr ago and ceased before 120 Myr ago. The implications of this discovery are that the shape of the eastern portion of the Pacific LLSVP was separated by downwelling associated with this ancient subducted slab.

We present the first observations of seismic waves propagating through the core of Mars. These observations, made using seismic data collected by the InSight geophysical mission, have allowed us to construct the first seismically constrained models for the elastic properties of Mars core. We observe core-Transiting seismic phase SKS from two farside seismic events detected on Mars and measure the travel times of SKS relative to mantle traversing body waves. SKS travels through the core as a compressional wave, providing information about bulk modulus and density. We perform probabilistic inversions using the core-sensitive relative travel times together with gross geophysical data and travel times from other, more proximal, seismic events to seek the equation of state parameters that best describe the liquid iron-Alloy core. Our inversions provide constraints on the velocities in Mars core and are used to develop the first seismically based estimates of its composition. We show that models informed by our SKS data favor a somewhat smaller (median core radius = 1,780 to 1,810 km) and denser (core density = 6.2 to 6.3 g/cm3) core compared to previous estimates, with a P-wave velocity of 4.9 to 5.0 km/s at the core mantle boundary, with the composition and structure of the mantle as a dominant source of uncertainty. We infer from our models that Mars core contains a median of 20 to 22 wt% light alloying elements when we consider sulfur, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. These data can be used to inform models of planetary accretion, composition, and evolution.

We detected surface waves from two meteorite impacts on Mars. By measuring group velocity dispersion along the impact-lander path, we obtained a direct constraint on crustal structure away from the InSight lander. The crust north of the equatorial dichotomy had a shear wave velocity of approximately 3.2 kilometers per second in the 5- to 30-kilometer depth range, with little depth variation. This implies a higher crustal density than inferred beneath the lander, suggesting either compositional differences or reduced porosity in the volcanic areas traversed by the surface waves. The lower velocities and the crustal layering observed beneath the landing site down to a 10-kilometer depth are not a global feature. Structural variations revealed by surface waves hold implications for models of the formation and thickness of the martian crust.

For over three Earth years the Marsquake Service has been analyzing the data sent back from the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure¿the seismometer placed on the surface of Mars by NASA¿s InSight lander. Although by October 2021, the Mars seismic catalog included 951 events, until recently all these events have been assessed as lying within a radius of 100° of InSight. Here we report two distant events that occurred within days of each other, located on the far side of Mars, giving us our first glimpse into Mars¿ core shadow zone. The first event, recorded on 25 August 2021 (InSight sol 976), shows clear polarized arrivals that we interpret to be PP and SS phases at low frequencies and locates to Valles Marineris, 146° ± 7° from InSight. The second event, occurring on 18 September 2021 (sol 1000), has significantly more broadband energy with emergent PP and SS arrivals, and a weak phase arriving before PP that we interpret as Pdiff¿. Considering uncertain pick times and poorly constrained travel times for Pdiff¿, we estimate this event is at a distance between 107° and 147° from InSight. With magnitudes of MMaw 4.2 and 4.1, respectively, these are the largest seismic events recorded so far on Mars.

A planet's crust bears witness to the history of planetary formation and evolution, but for Mars, no absolute measurement of crustal thickness has been available. Here, we determine the structure of the crust beneath the InSight landing site on Mars using both marsquake recordings and the ambient wavefield. By analyzing seismic phases that are reflected and converted at subsurface interfaces, we find that the observations are consistent with models with at least two and possibly three interfaces. If the second interface is the boundary of the crust, the thickness is 20 +/- 5 kilometers, whereas if the third interface is the boundary, the thickness is 39 +/- 8 kilometers. Global maps of gravity and topography allow extrapolation of this point measurement to the whole planet, showing that the average thickness of the martian crust lies between 24 and 72 kilometers. Independent bulk composition and geodynamic constraints show that the thicker model is consistent with the abundances of crustal heat-producing elements observed for the shallow surface, whereas the thinner model requires greater concentration at depth.

Mars is the first extraterrestrial planet with seismometers (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, SEIS) deployed directly on its surface in the framework of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. The lack of strong Marsquakes, however, strengthens the need of seismic noise studies to additionally constrain the Martian structure. Seismic noise autocorrelations of single-station recordings permit the determination of the zero-offset reflection response underneath SEIS. We present a new autocorrelation study which employs state-of-the-art approaches to determine a robust reflection response by avoiding bias from aseismic signals which are recorded together with seismic waves due to unfavorable deployment and environmental conditions. Data selection and segmentation is performed in a data-adaptive manner which takes the data root-mean-square amplitude variability into account. We further use the amplitude-unbiased phase cross-correlation and work in the 1.2-8.9 Hz frequency band. The main target are crustal scale reflections, their robustness and convergence. The strongest signal appears at 10.6 s, and, if interpreted as a P-wave reflection, would correspond to a discontinuity at about 21 km depth. This signal is a likely candidate for a reflection from the base of the Martian crust due to its strength, polarity, and stability. Additionally we identify, among the stable signals, a signal at about 6.15 s that can be interpreted as the P-wave reflection from the mid-crust at about 9.5 km depth.

Since early February 2019, the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) seismometer deployed at the surface of Mars in the framework of the InSight mission has been continuously recording the ground motion at Elysium Planitia. In this study, we take advantage of this exceptional data set to put constraints on the crustal properties of Mars using seismic interferometry (SI). To carry out this task, we first examine the continuous records from the very broadband seismometer. Several deterministic sources of environmental noise are identified and specific preprocessing strategies are presented to mitigate their influence. Applying the principles of SI to the single-station configuration of InSight, we compute, for each Sol and each hour of the martian day, the diagonal elements of the time-domain correlation tensor of random ambient vibrations recorded by SEIS. A similar computation is performed on the diffuse waveforms generated by more than a hundred Marsquakes. A careful signal-to-noise ratio analysis and an inter-comparison between the two datasets suggest that the results from SI are most reliable in a narrow frequency band around 2.4 Hz, where an amplification of both ambient vibrations and seismic events is observed. The average autocorrelation functions (ACFs) contain well identifiable seismic arrivals, that are very consistent between the two datasets. Interpreting the vertical and horizontal ACFs as, respectively, the P- and S- seismic reflectivity below InSight, we propose a simple stratified velocity model of the crust, which is mostly compatible with previous results from receiver function analysis. Our results are discussed and compared to recent works from the literature.

A plethora of geophysical, geo- chemical, and geodynamical observations indicate that the terrestrial planets have differentiated into silicate crusts and mantles that surround a dense core. The latter consists primarily of Fe and some lighter alloying elements (e.g., S, Si, C, O, and H) [1]¿. The Martian meteorites show evidence of chalcophile element depletion, suggesting that the otherwise Fe-Ni- rich core likely contains a sulfide component, which influences physical state.

Since early February 2019, the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) seismometer deployed at the surface of Mars in the framework of the InSight mission has been continuously recording the ground motion at Elysium Planitia. In this study, we take advantage of this exceptional data set to put constraints on the crustal properties of Mars using seismic interferometry (SI). To carry out this task, we first examine the continuous records from the very broadband seismometer. Several deterministic sources of environmental noise are identified and specific preprocessing strategies are presented to mitigate their influence. Applying the principles of SI to the single-station configuration of InSight, we compute, for each Sol and each hour of the martian day, the diagonal elements of the time-domain correlation tensor of random ambient vibrations recorded by SEIS. A similar computation is performed on the diffuse waveforms generated by more than a hundred Marsquakes. A careful signal-to-noise ratio analysis and an inter-comparison between the two datasets suggest that the results from SI are most reliable in a narrow frequency band around 2.4 Hz, where an amplification of both ambient vibrations and seismic events is observed. The average autocorrelation functions (ACFs) contain well identifiable seismic arrivals, that are very consistent between the two datasets. Interpreting the vertical and horizontal ACFs as, respectively, the P- and S- seismic reflectivity below InSight, we propose a simple stratified velocity model of the crust, which is mostly compatible with previous results from receiver function analysis. Our results are discussed and compared to recent works from the literature.

Since early February 2019, the SEIS seismometer deployed at the surface of Mars in the framework of the NASA-InSight mission has been continuously recording the ground motion at Elysium Planitia. In this work, we take advantage of this exceptional dataset to put constraints on the crustal properties of Mars using seismic interferometry (SI). This method use the seismic waves, either from background vibrations of the planet or from quakes, that are scattered in the medium in order to recover the ground response between two seismic sensors. Applying the principles of SI to the single-station configuration of SEIS, we compute, for each Sol (martian day) and each local hour, all the components of the time-domain autocorrelation tensor of random ambient vibrations in various frequency bands. A similar computation is performed on the diffuse waveforms generated by more than a hundred Marsquakes. For imaging application a careful signal-to-noise ratio analysis and an inter-comparison between the two datasets are applied. These analyses suggest that the reconstructed ground responses are most reliable in a relatively narrow frequency band around 2.4Hz, where an amplification of both ambient vibrations and seismic events is observed. The average Auto-Correlation Functions (ACFs) from both ambient vibrations and seismic events contain well identifiable seismic arrivals, that are very consistent between the two datasets. We interpret the vertical and horizontal ACFs as the ground reflection response below InSight for the compressional waves and the shear waves respectively. We propose a simple stratified velocity model of the crust, which is most compatible with the arrival times of the detected phases, as well as with previous seismological studies of the SEIS record. The hourly computation of the ACFs over one martian year also allows us to study the diurnal and seasonal variations of the reconstructed ground response with a technique call Passive Image Interferometry (PII).

NASA¿s InSight mission [1] has for the first time placed a very broad-band seismometer on the surface of Mars. The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) [2] has been collecting continuous data since early February 2019. The main focus of InSight is to enhance our understanding of the internal structure and dynamics of Mars, which includes the goal to better constrain the crustal thickness of the planet [3]. Knowing the present-day crustal thickness of Mars has important implications for its thermal evolution [4] as well as for the partitioning of silicates and heat-producing elements between the different layers of Mars. Current estimates for the crustal thickness of Mars are based on modeling the relationship between topography and gravity [5,6], but these studies rely on different assumptions, e.g. on the density of the crust and upper mantle, or the bulk silicate composition of the planet and the crust. The resulting values for the average crustal thickness differ by more than 100%, from 30 km to more than 100 km [7]. New independent constraints from InSight will be based on seismically determining the crustal thickness at the landing site. This single firm measurement of crustal thickness at one point on the planet will allow to constrain both the average crustal thickness of Mars as well as thickness variations across the planet when combined with constraints from gravity and topography [8]. Here we describe the determination of the crustal structure and thickness at the InSight landing site based on seismic receiver functions for three marsquakes compared with autocorrelations of InSight data [9].

Mars is the first extraterrestrial planet with seismometers (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, SEIS) deployed directly on its surface in the framework of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. The lack of strong Marsquakes, however, strengthens the need of seismic noise studies to additionally constrain the Martian structure. Seismic noise autocorrelations of single-station recordings permit the determination of the zero-offset reflection response underneath SEIS. We present a new autocorrelation study which employs state-of-the-art approaches to determine a robust reflection response by avoiding bias from aseismic signals which are recorded together with seismic waves due to unfavorable deployment and environmental conditions. Data selection and segmentation is performed in a data-adaptive manner which takes the data root-mean-square amplitude variability into account. We further use the amplitude-unbiased phase cross-correlation and work in the 1.2-8.9 Hz frequency band. The main target are crustal scale reflections, their robustness and convergence. The strongest signal appears at 10.6 s, and, if interpreted as a P-wave reflection, would correspond to a discontinuity at about 21 km depth. This signal is a likely candidate for a reflection from the base of the Martian crust due to its strength, polarity, and stability. Additionally we identify, among the stable signals, a signal at about 6.15 s that can be interpreted as the P-wave reflection from the mid-crust at about 9.5 km depth.

The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) of the InSight mission to Mars has been providing direct information on Martian interior structure and dynamics of that planet since it landed. Compared with seismic recordings on the Earth, ground‐motion measurements acquired by SEIS on Mars are not only made under dramatically different ambient noise conditions, but also include idiosyncratic signals that arise from coupling between different InSight sensors and spacecraft components. This work is to synthesize what is known about these signal types, illustrate how they can manifest in waveforms and noise correlations, and present pitfalls in structural interpretations based on standard seismic analysis methods. We show that glitches (a type of prominent transient signal) can produce artifacts in ambient noise correlations. Sustained signals that vary in frequency, such as lander modes that are affected by variations in temperature and wind conditions over the course of the Martian sol, can also contaminate ambient noise results. Therefore, both types of signals have the potential to bias interpretation in terms of subsurface layering. We illustrate that signal processing in the presence of identified nonseismic signals must be informed by an understanding of the underlying physical processes in order for high‐fidelity waveforms of ground motion to be extracted. Whereas the origins of the most idiosyncratic signals are well understood, the 2.4 Hz resonance remains debated, and the literature does not contain an explanation of its fine spectral structure. Even though the selection of idiosyncratic signal types discussed in this article may not be exhaustive, we provide guidance on the best practices for enhancing the robustness of structural interpretations.

A planet's crust bears witness to the history of planetary formation and evolution, but for Mars, no absolute measurement of crustal thickness has been available. Here, we determine the structure of the crust beneath the InSight landing site on Mars using both marsquake recordings and the ambient wavefield. By analyzing seismic phases that are reflected and converted at subsurface interfaces, we find that the observations are consistent with models with at least two and possibly three interfaces. If the second interface is the boundary of the crust, the thickness is 20 +/- 5 kilometers, whereas if the third interface is the boundary, the thickness is 39 +/- 8 kilometers. Global maps of gravity and topography allow extrapolation of this point measurement to the whole planet, showing that the average thickness of the martian crust lies between 24 and 72 kilometers. Independent bulk composition and geodynamic constraints show that the thicker model is consistent with the abundances of crustal heat-producing elements observed for the shallow surface, whereas the thinner model requires greater concentration at depth.

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.

SEIS, the seismometer of the InSight mission, which landed on Mars on 26 November 2018, is monitoring the seismic activity of the planet. The goal of the Mars Structure Service (MSS) is to provide, as a mission product, the first average 1-D velocity model of Mars from the recorded InSight data. Prior to the mission, methodologies have been developed and tested to allow the location of the seismic events and estimation of the radial structure, using surface waves and body waves arrival times, and receiver functions. The paper describes these validation tests and compares the performance of the different algorithms to constrain the velocity model below the InSight station and estimate the 1-D average model over the great circle path between source and receiver. These tests were performed in the frame of a blind test, during which synthetic data were inverted. In order to propagate the data uncertainties on the output model distribution, Bayesian inversion techniques are mainly used. The limitations and strengths of the methods are assessed. The results show the potential of the MSS approach to retrieve the structure of the crust and underlying mantle. However, at this time, large quakes with clear surface waves have not yet been recorded by SEIS, which makes the estimation of the 1-D average seismic velocity model challenging. Additional locatable events, especially at large epicentral distances, and development of new techniques to fully investigate the data, will ultimately provide more constraints on the crust and mantle of Mars. ©2020 The Authors.

Planetary crusts are the results of mantle differentiation, so their thickness provides important constraints on the thermochemical evolution of a planet, including its heat budget and mantle rheology. Information on crustal layering and seismic velocities can also provide important constraints on porosity and geochemistry of the crust. Here, we use data from the InSight mission, which landed in November 2018, to provide seismological constraints on the crustal layering and thickness of Mars for the first time. Results are mainly based on Ps-receiver functions from three events with magnitudes between 3.1 and 3.6 at distances between 27.5° and 47° (±10°) from the lander, originating in the Cerberus Fossae region, the only events, so far, with clear, impulsive P-wave onsets and known epicenter. Ps-receiver functions use converted phases in the P-wave coda to derive information on discontinuities beneath the seismometer. Due to the limited number of events and the small epicentral distance range covered, inversions of the data are still ambiguous. Two sets of models can explain the waveforms, one consisting of a two-layer crust of about 20 to 23 km thickness, the other having a three-layer crust of about 40 to 45 km thickness. By excluding crustal thicknesses in excess of 45 km at the landing site, we can constrain the global average crustal thickness of Mars to be less than 70 km. Both model types also agree with S-receiver functions for two events and seismic P-waves reflected in the crust and extracted from autocorrelations using the coda of different types of marsquakes as well as the background wavefield. Furthermore, the results are compatible with independently conducted moment tensor inversions for a limited number of events as well as modeling of the wave-propagation of high-frequency events. We find low seismic P-wave velocities below 3.4 km/s within the upper approximately 10 km, likely indicating a high porosity. For the Moon, we present Sp-receiver functi

NASA's InSight mission arrived on Mars in November 2018 and deployed the first very broad-band seismometer, SEIS, on the planet's surface. SEIS has been collecting data continuously since early February 2019, by now recording more than 400 events of different types. InSight aims at enhancing our understanding of the internal structure and dynamics of Mars, including better constraints on its crustal thickness. Various models based on topography and gravity observed from the orbit currently vary in average crustal thickness from 30 km to more than 100 km, with important implications for Mars¿ thermal evolution, and the partitioning of silicates and heat-producing elements between different layers of Mars. We present P-to-S and S-to-P receiver functions, which are available for 4 and 3 marsquakes, respectively, up to now. Out of all of the marsquakes recorded to date, these are the only ones with clear enough P- or S-arrivals not dominated by scattering to make them suitable for the analysis. All of the quakes are located at comparatively small epicentral distances, between 25° and 40°. We observe three consistent phases within the first 10 seconds of the P-to-S receiver functions. The S-to-P receiver functions also show a consistent first phase. Later arrivals are harder to pinpoint, which could be due to the comparatively shallow incidence of the S-waves at the considered distances, which prevents the generation of converted waves. Identification of later multiple phases in the P-to-S receiver functions likewise remains inconclusive. To obtain better constraints on velocity, we also calculated apparent velocity curves from the P-to-S receiver functions, but these provide meaningful results for only one event so far, implying a large uncertainty. Due to difficulties in clearly identifying multiples, the receiver functions can currently be explained by either two crustal layers and a thin (25-30 km) crust or three crustal layers and a thicker (40-45 km) crust at the l

Mars’s seismic activity and noise have been monitored since January 2019 by the seismometer of the InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander. At night, Mars is extremely quiet; seismic noise is about 500 times lower than Earth’s microseismic noise at periods between 4 s and 30 s. The recorded seismic noise increases during the day due to ground deformations induced by convective atmospheric vortices and ground-transferred wind-generated lander noise. Here we constrain properties of the crust beneath InSight, using signals from atmospheric vortices and from the hammering of InSight’s Heat Flow and Physical Properties (HP3) instrument, as well as the three largest Marsquakes detected as of September 2019. From receiver function analysis, we infer that the uppermost 8–11 km of the crust is highly altered and/or fractured. We measure the crustal diffusivity and intrinsic attenuation using multiscattering analysis and find that seismic attenuation is about three times larger than on the Moon, which suggests that the crust contains small amounts of volatiles.