According to a new planetary science paper published in the professional academic journal "Nature-Astronomy" under Springer Nature, there may be an active mantle plume with a diameter of about 4,000 kilometres under the northern plain of Mars.

This mantle plume would cause the Martian crust to lift and send hot magma to the Martian surface. This mantle plume is located on Mars's Elysium Planitia. The discovery may explain the volcanic and seismic activity in the region.

According to the paper, due to the lack of current geological structures and evidence of volcanic eruptions, Mars is generally considered to be geologically inactive, especially compared to Earth.

However, NASA's InSight lander, which has been on Mars since 2018, recently detected weak but persistent seismic activity. The seismic activity likely came from a nearby, recently formed fracture system called the Cerberus Fossae, which was also the site of the last volcanic eruption on Mars 53,000 years ago.

The authors of the paper, Adrien Broquet and Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna of the University of Arizona in the United States conducted a study on the InSight and the Cerberus trench group.

The topography, gravity, and geological structure of the Luxion Plain area were analyzed. The evidence they obtained using the geophysical model shows that there is a mantle plume below the entire region.

The hot material that makes up the mantle plume is 95-285 Kelvin higher than the temperature of the surrounding environment. The core of the mantle plume is located exactly in the Cerberus trench group.

They believe that, like the Earth, an active mantle plume can trigger localized sustained geological activity. Including Martian quakes detected by InSight, which are also responsible for the slow cracking of the Martian shell beneath the Cerberus trench group.

The authors of the paper say that the findings of their study may indicate that Mars is the third body in the inner solar system that currently has an active mantle plume, after Earth and Venus.

Earthquakes on Mars?

Not long ago, NASA announced that it had detected the first earthquake on Mars.

Some of the world's most advanced and sensitive instruments were used for this groundbreaking research. But some observers on land dismissed the subterranean roar, so what is the result of this research on Mars?

These quakes will allow unmanned Mars rovers to probe the Red Planet's subsurface regions. Doing so will allow NASA scientists to learn about Mars' mysterious interior. This is the first time an earthquake has been detected on a planet other than Earth. The signal is unusually weak, and space scientists are trying to understand why.

To the dismay of scientists, they are currently unable to identify the individual components of the seismic signal.

The researchers "don't know enough about Mars to understand the characteristics of these waveforms."

Regardless, the landmark discovery "means we are now entering a new era of planetary geophysics," said planetary scientist Paul Byrne of North Carolina State University.

He added: "Through Insight, we are already studying the internal structure of three of the major rocky bodies in the inner solar system: the Earth, the Moon, and now Mars."

"Hopefully, before long, we'll have a better understanding not only of the Red Planet's interior but of other rocky planets as well," Byrne said.