Tidal tomography reveals a thermal anomaly beneath Mars’s crustal dichotomy
Abstract Mars undergoes seasonal tidal forcing as a result of its eccentric orbit and the tilt of its rotation axis relative to the Sun 1 . Response to this forcing produces temporal variations in the Martian gravity field and is sensitive to the internal structure of the planet 2–4 . Using tracking data from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), Mars Odyssey (ODY) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft 5–7 , we demonstrate that degree-3 components of the time-variable gravity field of Mars differ by up to 300% from predictions for a spherically symmetric planet 8–10 . These deviations can be explained if the effective shear modulus of the mantle varies by >20% over a roughly north–south pattern that closely aligns with the surface expression of the Martian crustal dichotomy 11 . On the basis of this correlation, we infer preservation of a 200–400 °C thermal anomaly in the present-day mantle below the southern highlands of Mars. This temperature variation could reflect regional mantle convection 12,13 or insulation by the thick southern highlands crust of Mars that has persisted over several billion years 14,15 .
Authors
- D. Hemingway (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5617-207X)
- Sander Goossens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7707-1128)
- Angela G. Marusiak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6925-1383)
- I. Matsuyama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2917-8633)
- Shijie Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1654-1931)
- Marc Rovira‐Navarro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9980-5065)
- H. C. P. Lau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0311-695X)
- Alexander Berne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7857-8513)
- Nick Wagner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1454-7002)
- F. Nimmo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3573-5915)
- Antonio Genova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5584-492X)
- Kar Wai Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2126-9765)
- Chuan Qin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6441-8014)
- Amirhossein Bagheri
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Planetary Science Institute (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Brown University (US)
- Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica (TW)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Delft University of Technology (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature
- Published
- 2026-08-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10893-x
- Primary Topic
- Planetary Science and Exploration
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00