How do you measure a Mars quake?

Monday 29th Jan 2018, 3.50pm

In this episode of the Big Questions podcast, we visited Dr Neil Bowles, Jane Hurley and Tristram Warren from the Atmospheric Oceanic & Planetary Physics Department to ask the question: how do you measure a Mars quake? When the ground shakes on Earth we call them earthquakes. Even weak ones can be detected by ‘seismometers’ and from listening carefully to them we can learn a lot about the makeup of the planet – that it has a solid core, molten mantle under a thin crust. But can we learn anything from listening out for quakes on Mars? This May (2018), the InSight lander will be launched and head to Mars, landing in November 2018 in the quest to hear Mars Quakes!