Nasa’s InSight Lander Captures Audio of First Likely ‘Quake’ on Mars

Sounds a bit like a rockfall to me, perhaps nearby? The slow buildup and slower subsidence of the sound intuitively fits what I would expect for a rockfall, and also we know there are rockfalls on the surface of Mars. It would be neat if that could be corroborated with surface evidence of a rockfall (I think a few have even been captured by satellite!)

Impulsive quakes on Earth have a characteristic waveform which this does not match: The arrival of a compression wave, followed by a larger shear wave. That waveform wouldn't be much different on another planet, since the shape of the waveform arises from the mechanical properties of rock. If it were not a rockfall, it would have to correspond more to a seismic tremor, which happens more slowly-- I know less about those and I am curious how this matches up.

Having multiple stations would really help to narrow down what the source of sounds like this could be.

The article states definitively that Mars does not have tectonic plates. This is news to me because hitherto I thought there is no evidence either way.

Much like the Mars probes, the pre-2014 MATLAB color scheme is certainly an staunch survivor!

Pedantry: "audio of first likely 'quake' on Mars" is unlikely. But "first likely audio of a 'quake' on Mars", sure.

"In contrast, Earth’s surface is quivering constantly from seismic noise created by oceans and weather."

Fascinating, I wouldn't have thought these would be measurable on a large area's scale.

Interesting, I didn't know that quakes could still occur without tectonic activity. The explanation makes sense, but I had just never thought about it.

Marsquake.