Magnetite authigenesis and the warming of early Mars

Tosca, Nicholas J.; Ahmed, Imad A. M.; Tutolo, Benjamin M.; Ashpitel, A.; Hurowitz, J. A.

doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0203-8

Cited by 80 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…; Tosca et al. in press). Carbonates are also found in Martian meteorites, though their formation environment has been debated (Changela and Bridges ; Halevy and Head ).…”

Section: Objective 4: Constrain the Inventory Of Martian Volatiles Asmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…For example, experimental work suggests that syndepositional or early diagenetic magnetite formation in Gale Crater mudstones may have been driven by groundwater infiltration into lacustrine sediments which also generated H 2 (g) (Tosca et al. in press). This implies that early diagenetic processes may have strongly impacted surface and perhaps atmospheric chemistry on early Mars, while at the same time offering uniquely favorable environments for metabolic processes known to be ancient on the Earth (i.e., methanogenesis via the acetyl‐CoA pathway, which depends on the presence of H 2 and CO 2 ; Braakman and Smith ).…”

Section: Objective 1: Interpret the Primary Geologic Processes And Himentioning

confidence: 99%

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The potential science and engineering value of samples delivered to Earth by Mars sample return

Beaty¹,

Grady²,

McSween³

et al. 2019

Meteorit & Planetary Scien

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Executive Summary Return of samples from the surface of Mars has been a goal of the international Mars science community for many years. Affirmation by NASA and ESA of the importance of Mars exploration led the agencies to establish the international MSR Objectives and Samples Team (iMOST). The purpose of the team is to re‐evaluate and update the sample‐related science and engineering objectives of a Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. The iMOST team has also undertaken to define the measurements and the types of samples that can best address the objectives. Seven objectives have been defined for MSR, traceable through two decades of previously published international priorities. The first two objectives are further divided into sub‐objectives. Within the main part of the report, the importance to science and/or engineering of each objective is described, critical measurements that would address the objectives are specified, and the kinds of samples that would be most likely to carry key information are identified. These seven objectives provide a framework for demonstrating how the first set of returned Martian samples would impact future Martian science and exploration. They also have implications for how analogous investigations might be conducted for samples returned by future missions from other solar system bodies, especially those that may harbor biologically relevant or sensitive material, such as Ocean Worlds (Europa, Enceladus, Titan) and others. Summary of Objectives and Sub‐Objectives for MSR Identified by iMOST This objective is divided into five sub‐objectives that would apply at different landing sites. 1.1 Characterize the essential stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and facies variations of a sequence of Martian sedimentary rocks. 1.2 Understand an ancient Martian hydrothermal system through study of its mineralization products and morphological expression. 1.3 Understand the rocks and minerals representative of a deep subsurface groundwater environment. 1.4 Understand water/rock/atmosphere interactions at the Martian surface and how they have changed with time. 1.5 Determine the petrogenesis of Martian igneous rocks in time and space. This objective has three sub‐objectives: 2.1 Assess and characterize carbon, including possible organic and pre‐biotic chemistry. 2.2 Assay for the presence of biosignatures of past life at sites that hosted habitable environments and could have preserved any biosignatures. 2.3 Assess the possibility that any life forms detected are alive, or were recently alive. Summary of iMOST Findings Several specific findings were identified during the iMOST study. While they are not explicit recommendations, we suggest that they should serve as guidelines for future decision making regarding planning of potential future MSR missions. The samples to be collected by the Mars 2020 (M‐2020) rover will be of sufficient size and quality to address and solve a wide variety of scientific questions. Samples, by definition, are a statistical representation of a larger entity...

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“…; Tosca et al. in press). Carbonates are also found in Martian meteorites, though their formation environment has been debated (Changela and Bridges ; Halevy and Head ).…”

Section: Objective 4: Constrain the Inventory Of Martian Volatiles Asmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Objective 1: Interpret the Primary Geologic Processes And Himentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential science and engineering value of samples delivered to Earth by Mars sample return

Beaty¹,

Grady²,

McSween³

et al. 2019

Meteorit & Planetary Scien

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[30,33]). Recently, Tosca et al [34] experimentally traced Fe(II) reactivity in alkaline, anoxic solutions. As they increased pH above pH 8 and precipitated Fe(OH) 2 , they observed water reduction, giving rise to concurrent production of reduced species (inferred to be H 2 ) and green rust formation.…”

Section: (B) Brucite Reactivity and Implications For H 2 Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation and loss of metastable brucite: does Fe(II)-bearing brucite support microbial activity in serpentinizing ecosystems?

Templeton

Ellison

2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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“…5). Another possible positive feedback, not included in our model, is H2 production by aqueous weathering of olivine at Mars' surface during warm climates (Tosca et al 2018). H2 is a strong greenhouse gas via H2-CO2 CIA (Ramirez et al 2014, Ramirez 2017, Turbet et al 2019.…”

Section: A3 Clathrate Modeling and Ch4-co2 Warmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methane release on Early Mars by atmospheric collapse and atmospheric reinflation

Kite

Mischna

Yung

et al. 2020

Planetary and Space Science

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Please cite this article as: Kite, E.S., Mischna, M.A., Gao, P., Yung, Y.L., Turbet, M., Methane release on Early Mars by atmospheric collapse and atmospheric reinflation, Planetary and Space Science (2020), doi: https://doi. Abstract.A candidate explanation for Early Mars rivers is atmospheric warming due to surface release of H2 or CH4 gas. However, it remains unknown how much gas could be released in a single event. We model the CH4 release by one mechanism for rapid release of CH4 from clathrate. By modeling how CH4-clathrate release is affected by changes in Mars' obliquity and atmospheric composition, we find that a large fraction of total outgassing from CH4 clathrate occurs following Mars' first prolonged atmospheric collapse. This atmosphere-collapse-initiated CH4-release mechanism has three stages. (1) Rapid collapse of Early Mars' carbon dioxide atmosphere initiates a slower shift of water ice from high ground to the poles.(2) Upon subsequent CO2-atmosphere re-inflation and CO2-greenhouse warming, low-latitude clathrate decomposes and releases methane gas. (3) Methane can then perturb atmospheric chemistry and surface temperature, until photochemical processes destroy the methane.Within our model, we find that under some circumstances a Titan-like haze layer would be expected to form, consistent with transient deposition of abundant complex abiotic organic matter on the Early Mars surface. We also find that this CH4release mechanism can warm Early Mars, but special circumstances are required in order to uncork 10 17 kg of CH4, the minimum needed for strong warming. Specifically, strong warming only occurs when the fraction of the hydrate stability zone that is initially occupied by clathrate exceeds 10%, and when Mars' first prolonged atmospheric collapse occurs for atmospheric pressure > 1 bar.

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Magnetite authigenesis and the warming of early Mars

Cited by 80 publications

References 70 publications

The potential science and engineering value of samples delivered to Earth by Mars sample return

The potential science and engineering value of samples delivered to Earth by Mars sample return

Formation and loss of metastable brucite: does Fe(II)-bearing brucite support microbial activity in serpentinizing ecosystems?

Methane release on Early Mars by atmospheric collapse and atmospheric reinflation

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