---
title: Catching Waves on Mars
date: 2022-10-28T15:00:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/catching-waves-on-mars"
section: Articles
---
# Catching Waves on Mars

*October 28, 2022* — by [Maryland Today Staff](/author/maryland-today-staff)


> UMD Researchers Help Make First Observation of Seismic Surface Waves on Another Planet, Offering Clues to Interior Structure

*Mars insight 1920x1080 — A seismometer (lower left) placed on Mars by the InSight lander captured evidence of the first seismic waves propagating on the surface of a planet other than Earth. Meteorite strikes last year set off marsquakes that caused the waves.*

A team including University of Maryland geologists observed seismic waves spreading along the surface of a planet other than Earth for the first time.

The research stems from marsquakes caused by two large meteorites that plowed into Mars last December, as recorded by [NASA’s InSight ](https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/)lander and analyzed at [ETH Zurich](https://ethz.ch/en.html) in collaboration with the InSight Science Team.

[Published today](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq7157) in the journal *Science*, the team’s [paper](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq7157) provides new insights into the structure of the Martian crust, bringing scientists closer to learning how the planet formed and evolved over time.

Of the recorded waves, the study’s lead author, [Doyeon Kim](https://www.geol.umd.edu/doyeonkim), said that despite the placement of surface-based seismology sensors, “not even the Apollo missions to the moon managed it.” Kim is a visiting assistant professor in the UMD Department of Geology and senior assistant at the ETH Institute of Geophysics.

After almost three years of detecting only seismic waves traveling through the body of Mars, the InSight team finally observed surface waves after atypical marsquake readings led the researchers to suspect the sources were near the surface. They compared the data with information from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and images from the orbiter confirmed that both meteorite impacts created hypocenters (the point of origin for a quake) on the surface of Mars.


*Image of Mars showing surface waves, S-waves, P-waves and InSight landing site.*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/geology), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences)