Mars geologically active, planet experiencing 7.0 magnitude quakes say scientists

February 21, 2012 – SPACE – With High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) imagery, the research team  examined boulders along a fault system known as Cerberus Fossae, which cuts across a very young (few million years old) lava surface on Mars. By analyzing boulders that toppled from a Martian cliff, some of which left trails in the coarse-grained soils, and comparing the patterns of dislodged rocks to such patterns caused by quakes on Earth, the scientists determined the rocks fell because of seismic activity. Gerald Roberts, an earthquake geologist with Birkbeck, an institution of the University of London, who led the study, said that the images of Mars included boulders that ranged from two to 20 meters (6.5 to 65 feet) in diameter, which had fallen in avalanches from cliffs. The size and number of boulders decreased over a radius of 100 kilometers (62 miles) centered at a point along the Cerberus Fossae faults. “This is consistent with the hypothesis that boulders had been mobilized by ground-shaking, and that the severity of the ground-shaking decreased away from the epicenters of mars-quakes,” Roberts said. The team compared the pattern of boulder falls, and faulting of the Martian surface, with those seen after a 2009 earthquake near L’Aquila, in central Italy. In that event, boulder falls occurred up to approximately 50 km (31 miles) from the epicenter. Because the area of displaced boulders in the marsscape stretched across an area approximately 200 km124-miles) long, the quakes were likely to have had a magnitude greater than 7, the researchers estimated. By looking at the tracks that the falling boulders had left on the dust-covered Martian surface, the team determined that the mars-quakes were relatively recent – and certainly within the last few percent of the planet’s history – because Martian winds had not yet erased the boulder tracks. Trails on Mars can quickly disappear – for instance, tracks left by NASA robotic rovers are erased within a few years by Martian winds, whereas other, sheltered tracks stick around longer. It is possible, the scientists concluded, that large-magnitude quake activity is still occurring on Mars. –Physics

For those of you following The Extinction Protocol book, see pages 479-480 on why I said, two years ago, seismic quakes and avalanches were occurring on Mars and why the same forces would accelerate their increase on Earth.

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