1,- 1Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
- 2Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Meteoroid impacts reshape planetary surfaces and generate seismic waves that probe interior structure — yet on Mars, linking seismic detections to fresh craters remains a major challenge. Seismic events often lack a visible surface feature to confirm the source of recorded marsquakes, while newly imaged craters are rarely matched to a known seismic event. This disconnect stems from limitations in both datasets: seismic signals originating near the surface are affected by strong crustal scattering and uncertainties in attenuation and velocity structure, while orbital imaging is constrained by resolution, material contrasts, coverage gaps, and long revisit intervals.
We demonstrate how combining seismic, seismoacoustic, and orbital data can overcome these barriers. Using data from NASA’s InSight mission, this integrated approach has enabled the confirmation of new impact events [1-5]. Recent work shows that even low-resolution orbital images, when analyzed at the pixel level, can be cross-referenced with seismic signals to improve source localization and refine models of seismic wave propagation on Mars [4].
We present a new, comprehensive test case linking an InSight-detected marsquake to a fresh impact crater, confirmed through integrated analysis of seismic data and a diverse set of orbital images – ranging from high-cadence, low-resolution to high-resolution, low-frequency observations. This cross-disciplinary approach enhances estimates of impact rates [e.g., 6–7], improves our understanding of surface modification processes, and provides a valuable framework for future planetary missions. As we look ahead to lunar seismology and real-time monitoring of other planetary bodies, integrating seismic and surface datasets will be essential for revealing dynamic processes across the solar system.
References: [1] Posiolova et al., 2022, Science, [2] Garcia et al., 2022, NatGeo, [3] Daubar et al., 2023, PSJ, [4] Charalambous et al., 2025, GRL, [5] Bickel et al., 2025, GRL, [6] Daubar et al., 2024, SciAdv, [7] Zenhäusern et al., 2024, NatAstr
How to cite: Charalambous, C., Pike, W. T., Fernando, B., and Zhang, S.: A Multi-Dataset Approach to Confirming Marsquakes as Recent Impact Events, EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025, Helsinki, Finland, 7–12 Sep 2025, EPSC-DPS2025-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc-dps2025-2012, 2025.
