【Watch Take Turns Tasting With College Alumni Online】

Mars is Watch Take Turns Tasting With College Alumni Onlinealive. (Geologically.)

NASA recently reported that its InSight lander — sent to observe geologic activity beneath the Martian surface — recorded one of its biggest quakes yet on Sept. 18. The 4.2 temblor, a quake that would have been big enough for people to feel had it happened on Earth, lasted an hour-and-a-half.

NASA said the event was "one of the biggest, longest-lasting marsquakes the mission has ever detected."

The agency also noted that the 4.2 quake was the third "major" quake InSight has observed in the last month. Both a 4.2 and 4.1 magnitude quake hit on Aug. 25.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The InSight lander's seismometer is covered by a protective dome. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

InSight landed on Mars in Nov. 2018, so planetary scientists are still observing how geologically active Mars truly is. The solar-powered lander has observed hundreds of quakes, suggesting there might be volcanically active places in the Martian underground, perhaps hot molten rock (magma) moving and flowing like it does on Earth.

Though NASA researchers are still studying the recent September quake, they've found the August marsquakes occurred far off, much farther than where the other quakes originated in the plains of Cerberus Fossae.

"One especially intriguing possibility is Valles Marineris, the epically long canyon system that scars the Martian equator," wrote NASA. That's some 6,000 miles from InSight.

SEE ALSO: If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know

NASA engineers used a clever strategy to keep the seismometer on and recording quakes in recent months. Mars' orbit has taken it farther from the sun, and dust had covered InSight's solar panels. This meant there was insufficient sunlight to power the entire machine. So NASA directed InSight's robotic arm to "trickle" sand near a solar panel, thinking wind would sweep sand granules over the panel and remove dust.

The plan worked. And InSight recorded some major Martian quakes.

Related video: Mars will kill you in ways you'd never imagine

• Social Good
• Life
• Games
• Tech
• Shopping
• Science
• Deals
• Entertainment

• Get Thee to a City of Ladies
• Yale's free happiness course shows how awkward it is to be happy
• Picky gorilla wanting to see more pictures of apes is all of us on dating apps
• Uber will now deliver a rental car to your door — and pick it up when you're done
• The Sad Song of Privilege
• 15 best tweets of the week, including wind breakers, Cody Rigsby, and Four Loko
• Why iPhone owners should turn off AirDrop. Now.
• NASA's Ingenuity helicopter flew on Mars for the third time, and Perseverance took a video
• The Midterms and the Turn Leftward
• How to use the YouTube mobile app's new data

• Brenda Shaughnessy’s “I’m Over the Moon” by Lorin Stein
• The Winter Issue: Naughty and Nice by The Paris Review
• Reading in Bed with James Franco by The Paris Review
• Bah, Humbug! by The Paris Review
• Isolation; Being in a Band by Sasha Frere
• The Grand Map by Avi Steinberg
• Part 2: The Offer by Mark Van de Walle
• The Sporting Life by Louisa Thomas
• Cosmic Geometry by Lauren O'Neill
• Ask the Paris Review! (West Coast Edition) by Sadie Stein

• You Know You Want It
• Win 100 pounds of cookies by accepting as many web cookies as possible
• Australia votes yes to marriage equality and everyone is thrilled
• The MyPillow guy's terrible movie wins top 'prize' at the 2021 Razzies
• A March For the Marchers
• Plant pots made to repel mosquitos have one cool detail painted on them
• The Oscars red carpet is BACK, babey
• College sophomore created an Iowa tradition that absolutely nobody wanted
• Presidential Confusion
• How 'Superstore' nailed the chaos and complexities of robots in the workplace

• The Loud American
• Web game teaches families the ABC's of American Sign Language
• Poshmark raises $87 million in e
• NASA's Ingenuity helicopter flew on Mars for the third time, and Perseverance took a video
• I Am Not a Fish Dating a Bird
• Australia votes for marriage equality, and the joy is infectious
• Daniel Kaluuya's Oscars speech thanked his parents for having sex
• Sir Anthony Hopkins pays tribute to Chadwick Boseman in Oscar acceptance speech
• Fascism for Dummies
• Tim Cook congratulates Australia, but uses New Zealand flag