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A recent analysis of seismic data collected by NASA’s InSight lander has unveiled compelling evidence suggesting the presence of liquid water deep beneath the surface of Mars.
In a study conducted in 2024, researchers concluded that the subsurface of the Red Planet, especially at depths ranging from 7.1 to 12.4 miles (11.5 to 20 kilometers), may be saturated with liquid water. This finding is based on the seismic wave velocities observed during marsquakes, as reported by Space.com.
The research team, comprising Ikuo Katayama from Hiroshima University and Yuya Akamatsu from the Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics in Japan, found additional evidence supporting the existence of liquid water within Mars’s depths.
Katayama stated, “While many studies suggest that water existed on ancient Mars billions of years ago, our model indicates that liquid water is present on today’s Mars.”
Like previous investigations, this study utilized seismic data gathered by the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument, which was part of the InSight mission that operated from 2018 to 2022 on Mars’s surface.
Remarkably, SEIS was the first seismometer to function on Mars and was capable of detecting three distinct types of seismic waves produced by marsquakes.
These waves included P-waves, which move back and forth like sound waves; S-waves, which move up and down perpendicular to the direction of travel; and surface waves, which propagate along Mars’s surface, resembling ripples in a pond.
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