Manganese-Rich Sandstones as an Indicator of Ancient Oxic Lake Water Conditions in Gale Crater, Mars
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Manganese has been observed on Mars by the NASA Curiosity rover in a variety of contexts and is an important indicator of redox processes in hydrologic systems on Earth. Within the Murray formation, an ancient primarily fine-grained lacustrine sedimentary deposit in Gale crater, Mars, have observed up to 45× enrichment in manganese and up to 1.5× enrichment in iron within coarser grained bedrock targets compared to the mean Murray sediment composition. This enrichment in manganese coincides with the transition between two stratigraphic units within the Murray: Sutton Island, interpreted as a lake margin environment, and Blunts Point, interpreted as a lake environment. On Earth, lacustrine environments are common locations of manganese precipitation due to highly oxidizing conditions in the lakes. Here, we explore three mechanisms for ferromanganese oxide precipitation at this location: authigenic precipitation from lake water along a lake shore, authigenic precipitation from reduced groundwater discharging through porous sands along a lake shore, and early diagenetic precipitation from groundwater through porous sands. All three scenarios require highly oxidizing conditions and we discuss oxidants that may be responsible for the oxidation and precipitation of manganese oxides. This work has important implications for the habitability of Mars to microbes that could have used Mn redox reactions, owing to its multiple redox states, as an energy source for metabolism.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | e2023JE007923 |
| Tidsskrift | Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets |
| Vol/bind | 129 |
| Udgave nummer | 5 |
| ISSN | 2169-9097 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - maj 2024 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:
The authors thank JPL for building and operating the Curiosity rover as well as the NASA Mars Exploration Program and CNES for their support. P.-Y. Meslin, A. Cousin, S. Maurice, and O. Gasnault acknowledge funding from CNES (Grant 180027). J. Frydenvang acknowledges the support from the Carlsberg Foundation. P. Gasda thanks Kenneth Herkenhoff and Travis Gabriel for useful comments on the manuscript, as well as Bradley Garczynski, Lindsay McHenry, and the anonymous reviewer for their reviews. The authors have no real or perceived financial or other conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper. Mastcam mosaics were processed by the Mastcam team at Malin Space Science Systems. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The research by S. Gwizd was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004).
Funding Information:
The authors thank JPL for building and operating the rover as well as the NASA Mars Exploration Program and CNES for their support. P.\u2010Y. Meslin, A. Cousin, S. Maurice, and O. Gasnault acknowledge funding from CNES (Grant 180027). J. Frydenvang acknowledges the support from the Carlsberg Foundation. P. Gasda thanks Kenneth Herkenhoff and Travis Gabriel for useful comments on the manuscript, as well as Bradley Garczynski, Lindsay McHenry, and the anonymous reviewer for their reviews. The authors have no real or perceived financial or other conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper. Mastcam mosaics were processed by the Mastcam team at Malin Space Science Systems. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The research by S. Gwizd was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). Curiosity
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Triad National Security, LLC and The Authors. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.
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