When doing seismology on Earth, we use information from multiple stations to determine where a signal is coming from, using triangulation. On Mars, we only have one seismometer (InSight). Is this enough to get a (very) rough idea of where the marsquake occurred? If so, how is this done?
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related: How are marsquake epicenters determined using only one seismometer? – uhoh Feb 15 '21 at 01:52
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128 October 2022: Largest recent impact craters on Mars: Orbital imaging and surface seismic co-investigation. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is used to locate the location of the impact. – Fred Oct 28 '22 at 09:34
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According to this paper by the InSIGHT seismometer ("SEIS") team (with a list of authors as long as your arm!), techniques combining data about the arrival times of various modes of seismic waves, the amplitude ("strength") of the waves, and surface waves that travel around Mars's globe more than once can determine the location of Mars quakes.
My reading of the paper is that the process isn't a straightforward calculation, but instead involves modeling of Mars's interior structure and wave propagation characteristics, adjusting the models until a coherent solution is reached. That "solution" includes the depth and geographic position of the quake's focus.
Tom Spilker
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Hi if you have a moment we need further clarification on Orbital vocabulary confusion! How can the tangential velocity of an elliptical Kepler orbit not be tangent to the orbit? I've got you and Mark Adler quoted in the question, and the highly upvoted answer seems to contradict you if I am understanding correctly. – uhoh Mar 14 '21 at 14:37