Two Strong Quakes Have Been Detected on Mars SCOTT ALAN JOHNSTON, UNIVERSE TODAY 6 APRIL 2021 NASA's InSight lander felt the distant rumble of two major 'marsquakes' in March, originating from a region near the Martian equator known as the Cerberus Fossae. Registering magnitudes of 3.1 and 3.3 on March 7 and March 18 respectively, the quakes cement the Cerberus Fossae's reputation as one of the most geologically active places on the Red Planet today.
A pair of similarly strong marsquakes rocked the same region back in 2019. The Cerberus Fossae region is scarred by a series of massive, nearly-parallel fissures, created when the planet's crust was pulled open by a dramatic volcanic event. Volcanism is the primary driver of quakes on Mars: the Red Planet lacks the tectonic plates that cause most of the quakes we feel here on Earth.