Recent boulder falls in Cerberus Fossae, Mars, triggered by the S0235b marsquake
Abstract
We present quantitative evidence that the InSight-detected S0235b marsquake was associated with recent boulder falls in Cerberus Fossae, Mars. Temporal MRO-HiRISE image pairs reveal 27 fresh boulder-fall ejecta (BFE) tracks, totaling ~2.75 km in mapped length, that formed after the 25 July 2019 event near the most probable S0235b epicenter. These tracks are confined to a ~4 km segment of the northern graben wall, with ~96% concentrated within a ~2 km section. A Poisson-rate test, based on the 2012-2019 pre-event background in the same search area, indicates a greater than tenfold increase in BFE formation during the 1.5-year post-event interval (p < 10 -4 ). First-order attenuation estimates suggest plausible peak ground accelerations of 3 × 10 -4 to 10 -2 m s -2 at the BFE sites, sufficient to destabilize weathered blocks under Martian gravity. Together, the temporal, spatial, statistical, and mechanical evidence support seismic triggering of recent boulder falls by S0235b and its associated seismic sequence.
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BibTeX
@article{vijayan2026recent,
title = {{Recent boulder falls in Cerberus Fossae, Mars, triggered by the S0235b marsquake}},
author = {S. Vijayan and Bivas Das and V. Rama Subramanian and Rishav Sahoo and Antoine Lucas and U. Thahira and R. Aditi and Sakthi Saravanan and K B Kimi and Sandeep Sandeep and Anil Bhardwaj},
journal = {npj Space Exploration},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1038/s44453-026-00052-x},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05736220v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Recent boulder falls in Cerberus Fossae, Mars, triggered by the S0235b marsquake
AU - S. Vijayan
AU - Bivas Das
AU - V. Rama Subramanian
AU - Rishav Sahoo
AU - Antoine Lucas
AU - U. Thahira
AU - R. Aditi
AU - Sakthi Saravanan
AU - K B Kimi
AU - Sandeep Sandeep
AU - Anil Bhardwaj
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/02
JO - npj Space Exploration
DO - 10.1038/s44453-026-00052-x
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05736220v1
AB - We present quantitative evidence that the InSight-detected S0235b marsquake was associated with recent boulder falls in Cerberus Fossae, Mars. Temporal MRO-HiRISE image pairs reveal 27 fresh boulder-fall ejecta (BFE) tracks, totaling ~2.75 km in mapped length, that formed after the 25 July 2019 event near the most probable S0235b epicenter. These tracks are confined to a ~4 km segment of the northern graben wall, with ~96% concentrated within a ~2 km section. A Poisson-rate test, based on the 2012-2019 pre-event background in the same search area, indicates a greater than tenfold increase in BFE formation during the 1.5-year post-event interval (p < 10 -4 ). First-order attenuation estimates suggest plausible peak ground accelerations of 3 × 10 -4 to 10 -2 m s -2 at the BFE sites, sufficient to destabilize weathered blocks under Martian gravity. Together, the temporal, spatial, statistical, and mechanical evidence support seismic triggering of recent boulder falls by S0235b and its associated seismic sequence.
SN - 3059-3700
ER -