On May 4th, 2022 the InSight seismometer SEIS recorded the largest marsquake ever observed, S1222a, with an initial magnitude estimate of Mw 4.7. Understanding the depth and source properties of this event has important implications for the nature of tectonic activity on Mars. Located ~37 degrees to the southeast of InSight, S1222a is one of the few non-impact marsquakes that exhibits prominent ratio surface waves. We use waveform modeling of body waves (P and S) and surface waves (Rayleigh and Love) to constrain the moment tensor and quantify the associated uncertainty. We find that S1222a likely resulted from dip-slip faulting in the mid-crust (source depth ~18 – 28 km) and estimate a scalar moment of 3.51015 – 5.01015 Nm (magnitude Mw 4.3 – 4.4). The best-fitting focal mechanism is sensitive to the choice of phase windows and misfit weights, as well as the structural model of Mars used to calculate Green’s functions. We find that an E-W to SE-NW striking thrust fault can explain the data well, although depending on the choice of misfit weighting, a normal fault solution is also permissible. The orientation of the best-fitting fault plane solutions suggests that S1222a takes place on a fault system near the martian crustal dichotomy accommodating relative motion between the northern lowlands and southern highlands. Independent constraints on the event depth and improved models of the (an)isotropic velocity structure of the martian crust and mantle could help resolve the ambiguity inherent to single-station moment tensor inversions of S1222a and other marsquakes.

The seismic activity of a planet can be described by the corner magnitude, events larger than which are extremely unlikely, and the seismic moment rate, the long-term average of annual seismic moment release. Marsquake S1222a proves large enough to be representative of the global activity of Mars and places observational constraints on the moment rate. The magnitude-frequency distribution of relevant Marsquakes indicates a b-value of 1.17, but with its uncertainty and a volcanic region bias, b=1 is still possible. The moment rate is likely between 1.5e15 Nm/a and 1.6e18 Nm/a, with a marginal distribution peaking at 4.9e16 Nm/a. Comparing this with pre-InSight estimations shows that these tended to overestimate the moment rate, and that 30 % or more of the tectonic deformation may occur silently, whereas the seismicity is probably restricted to localized centers rather than spread over the entire planet.

The shallowest intracrustal layer (extending to 8 ± 2 km depth) beneath the Mars InSight Lander site exhibits low seismic wave velocity, which are likely related to a combination of high porosity and other lithological factors. The SsPp phase, an SV-to P-wave reflection on the receiver side, is naturally suited for constraining the seismic structure of this top crustal layer since its prominent signal makes it observable with a single station without the need for stacking. We have analyzed eight broadband and low-frequency seismic events recorded on Mars and made the first coherent detection of the SsPp phase on the red planet. The timing and amplitude of SsPp confirm the existence of the ~8 km interface in the crust and the large wave speed (or impedance) contrast across it. With our new constraints from the SsPp phase, we determined that the P-wave speed in the top crustal layer is between 2.5 km/s and 3.3 km/s, which is a more precise and robust estimate than the previous range of 2.0-3.5 km/s obtained by receiver function analysis. The porosity in Layer 1 is estimated to be as much as 21-31% (assuming an aspect ratio of 0.1 for the pore space), but could be lower if some pores are filled by low-density cements or other secondary 1 mineral phases. These porosities and P-wave speeds are compatible with our current understanding of the upper crustal stratigraphy beneath the InSight Lander site.

Subsurface imaging is key to understanding the origin of intraplate volcanos. The Changbaishan volcano, located about 2000 km away from the western Pacific subduction zone, has several debated origins. To investigate this, we compared regional seismic tomography with the electrical resistivity results and performed high-resolution 1D and quasi-2D velocity-depth profiles. We show that the upper mantle is characterized by two anomalies exhibiting distinct features which cannot be explained by the same mechanism. We document a localized low-velocity anomaly atop the 410-km discontinuity, where the P-wave velocity is reduced more than that of the S-wave (i.e., low Vp/Vs). We propose that this anomaly is caused by the reduction of the effective moduli during the phase transformation of olivine. The other anomaly, located between 300 km and 370 km depth, reveals a significant reduction of the S-wave velocity (i.e., high Vp/Vs), associated with a reduction of the electrical resistivity, altogether consistent with partial melting.

The lithospheric structure of the contiguous US and surrounding regions is significant in revealing the historical tectonic deformations and interactions between subducting slabs and cratons. In this paper, we present a new radially anisotropic shear wave speed model of this region, constrained by seismic full-waveform inversion. The new model (named CUSRA2021) utilizes frequency dependent travel time measured from waveforms of 160 earthquake events recorded by 5,280 stations. More earthquakes located in contiguous US are incorporated to improve the data coverage in eastern US. The final model exhibits clear and detailed shear wave speed anomalies that correlate very well with tectonic units such as North America Craton (high-Vs), Cascadia subduction zones (high-Vs), Columbia Plateau (low-Vs), Basin and Range (low-Vs), etc. In particular, the detail of the North America Craton beneath Illinois is revealed, and the depth of high-Vs anomaly beneath the North America Craton correlates well with S-to-P receiver function and SH reflection studies. The radial anisotropy also shows a layering of Craton lithosphere.