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Which space agency has recorded the first “marsquake,” quake on Mars due to volcanic eruptions or land tides?

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“Marsquake” studies help scientists understand the planet’s tectonic activity and potential for past or present habitability.
Updated On: Jul 15, 2026
  • JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)
  • NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
  • ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation)
  • Chinese Space Agency
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The Correct Option is B

Approach Solution - 1

This question is about which space agency's mission first detected seismic activity on Mars. JAXA, ISRO and the Chinese Space Agency all run active planetary missions, but none of them operated the lander responsible for this discovery, so these three can be set aside together.

It was NASA's InSight lander that picked up the first confirmed marsquake in 2019, a tremor thought to come from volcanic activity or movement in the Martian crust, giving scientists a first real window into the planet's internal structure.

So the correct answer is NASA.

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Approach Solution -2

Four different countries run active Mars or planetary exploration programs, but recording a marsquake requires a very particular kind of hardware sitting directly on the planet's surface, which narrows things down quickly.

  1. JAXA: has focused its planetary efforts more on asteroids and the Moon in recent years, and does not operate a Mars surface mission capable of sensing internal tremors.
  2. NASA: is the agency behind InSight, a mission built around a single purpose, listening to the interior of Mars using a dome shaped seismometer placed directly on the ground, and it was this instrument that registered the planet's first detected quake in 2019.
  3. ISRO: proved its planetary capabilities with the Mangalyaan orbiter, one of the most cost effective interplanetary missions ever flown, but an orbiter circles the planet rather than touching down, so it has no way to sense ground vibrations.
  4. Chinese Space Agency: would go on to land its own rover on Mars a couple of years later, but at the time this marsquake was recorded, it did not yet have equipment on the Martian surface.

The unique requirement of having a stationary, ground-touching seismometer rules out three of the four agencies and confirms the fourth.

Therefore, the correct answer is NASA.

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