Samuel, Henri ; Drilleau, Mélanie ; Lekić, Vedran ; Irving, Jessica C. E. ; Xu, Zongbo ; Huang, Quancheng ; Garcia, Raphaël F. ; Rivoldini, Attilio ; Badro, James ; Lognonné, Philippe H. ; Connolly, James A. D. ; Kawamura, Taichi ; Gudkova, Tamara ; Banerdt, William B.

published in ICARUS, 458 (2026)

Abstract: Seismic data offer a unique window into planetary interiors. Here, following a note from Russell et al. (2026), we provide further analysis to solidify our identification of a seismic phase detected by the InSight mission as one which interacts with a basal mantle layer (BML) on Mars (Samuel et al., 2023a). We show that other mantle discontinuities or other seismic structures invoked in the aforementioned note are unlikely to produce this seismic signal. We further illustrate how our proposed layered structure is compatible with other available geophysical observations and geodynamical constraints, and can be used to make inferences about Martian evolution.

DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2026.117148
Funding: 3PRODPLANINT/3PRODPLANINT/3PRODPLANINT