Largest recent impact craters on Mars: Orbital imaging and surface seismic co-investigation.
L V PosiolovaPhilippe H LognonnéWilliam Bruce BanerdtJohn F ClintonGareth S CollinsTaichi KawamuraSavas CeylanIngrid J DaubarBenjamin FernandoM FromentDomenico GiardiniMichal C MalinKatarina MiljkovićSimon C StählerZongbo XuM E BanksÉric BeuclerB A CantorConstantinos CharalambousNikolaj DahmenP DavisMélanie DrilleauColin M DundasA Cecilia DuranF EuchnerRaphaël F GarciaMatthew P GolombekAnna Catherine HorlestonC KeeganAmir KhanDoyeon KimC LarmatRalph D LorenzLudovic MargerinS MeninaMark P PanningC PardoClément PerrinWilliam T PikeMatthieu PlasmanA RajšićLucie RollandEsteban RougierG SpethAymeric SpigaAlexander E StottD SuskoNicholas A TeanbyA ValehAlyssa WerynskiN WójcickaGéraldine ZenhäusernPublished in: Science (New York, N.Y.) (2022)
Two >130-meter-diameter impact craters formed on Mars during the later half of 2021. These are the two largest fresh impact craters discovered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since operations started 16 years ago. The impacts created two of the largest seismic events (magnitudes greater than 4) recorded by InSight during its 3-year mission. The combination of orbital imagery and seismic ground motion enables the investigation of subsurface and atmospheric energy partitioning of the impact process on a planet with a thin atmosphere and the first direct test of martian deep-interior seismic models with known event distances. The impact at 35°N excavated blocks of water ice, which is the lowest latitude at which ice has been directly observed on Mars.