Seismic Velocities Distribution in a 3D Mantle: Implications for InSight
Measurements
Abstract
The InSight mission [1] landed in November 2018 in the Elysium
Planitia region [2] bringing the first geophysical observatory to
Mars. Since February 2019 the seismometer SEIS [3] has continuously
recorded Mars’ seismic activity, and a list of the seismic events is
available in the InSight Marsquake Service catalog [4]. In this
study, we predict present-day seismic velocities in the Martian interior
using the 3D thermal evolution models of [5]. We then use the 3D
velocity distributions to interpret seismic observations recorded by
InSight. Our analysis is focused on the two high quality events S0173a
and S0235b. Both have distinguishable P- and S-wave arrivals and are
thought to originate in Cerberus Fossae [6], a potentially active
fault system [7]. Our results show that models with a crust
containing more than half of the total amount of heat producing elements
(HPE) of the bulk of Mars lead to large variations of the seismic
velocities in the lithosphere. A seismic velocity pattern similar to the
crustal thickness structure is observed at depths larger than 400 km for
cases with cold and thick lithospheres. Models, with less than 20% of
the total HPE in the crust have thinner lithospheres with shallower but
more prominent low velocity zones. The latter, lead to shadow zones that
are incompatible with the observed P- and S-wave arrivals of seismic
events occurring in Cerberus Fossae, in 20° - 40° epicentral distance.
We therefore expect that future high-quality seismic events have the
potential to further constrain the amount of HPE in the Martian crust.
Future work will combine the seismic velocities distribution calculated
in this study with modeling of seismic wave propagation [8, 9]. This
will help to assess the effects of a 3D thermal structure on the
waveforms and provide a powerful framework for the interpretation of
InSight’s seismic data. [1] Banerdt et al., Nat. Geo. 2020; [2]
Golombek et al., Nat. Comm. 2020, [3] Lognnoné et al., Nat. Geo.
2020, [4] InSight MQS, Mars Seismic Catalogue, InSight Mission V3,
2020, https://doi.org/10.12686/A8, [5] Plesa et al., GRL 2018,
[6] Giardini et al., Nat. Geo. 2020, [7] Taylor et al., JGR
2013, [8] Bozdag et al., SSR 2017, [9] Komatitsch & Tromp, GJI
2002.