Experts confirm that last year's magnitude 4.7 earthquake on Mars was caused by plate movement, not meteor impact.

CTOnews.com, October 19 (Xinhua)-- NASA detected a magnitude 4.7 earthquake on Mars on May 4, 2022 with the help of the InSight probe. Astronomers repeatedly confirmed that it was caused by plate movement.

CTOnews.com note: the quake, named S1222a, was five times as strong as the one and lasted six hours, releasing as much energy as all other Martian earthquakes it detected in its five-year life combined.

It was not only the strongest Martian earthquake ever recorded, but also the longest. Astronomers suspected it was caused by a meteor impact, but a joint research team of China, India, Europe and the United Arab Emirates finally identified the cause of the earthquake after months of in-depth investigation.

Astronomers believe that the earthquake was the result of the massive release of stress in the earth's crust billions of years ago, and the formation and evolution of the earth's crust was formed and evolved by the cooling and contraction of various parts of the earth over the past many centuries.

Dr Benjamin Fernando (Benjamin Fernando), lead author of the study, said:

We still believe that Mars does not currently have any active plate tectonics, so this earthquake is likely to be caused by the release of stress in the Martian crust.

These stresses are the result of billions of years of evolution, including different parts of the earth cooling and contracting at different rates. We still don't fully understand why some parts of the earth seem to be under more pressure than others, but the results are helpful for our further research.