Exobiology Branch Seminar: Formation of Surface Clays

Formation of Surface Clays via Short-Term Warmer and Wetter Climate Excursions on a Largely Cold Ancient Mars will be presented by Janice Bishop, Senior Research Scientist at the SETI Institute.

The ancient rock record at Mars has long been at odds with climate modeling. The presence of valley networks, dendritic channels and deltas on ancient terrains point towards running water and fluvial erosion on early Mars, but climate modeling indicates that long-term warm conditions were not sustainable. Widespread phyllosilicates and other aqueous minerals at the martian surface provide additional evidence that an early wet martian climate resulted in surface weathering. Some of these phyllosilicates formed in subsurface crustal environments, with no association to the martian climate, while other phyllosilicate-rich outcrops exhibit layered morphologies and broad stratigraphies consistent with surface formation. Here we develop a new geochemical model for early Mars to explain the formation of these clay-bearing rocks in warm and wet surface locations. We propose that sporadic, short-term warm and wet environments during a generally cold early Mars enabled phyllosilicate formation without requiring long-term warm and wet conditions. We conclude that Mg-rich clay-bearing rocks with lateral variations in mixed Fe/Mg-smectite, chlorite, talc, serpentine, and zeolite occurrences formed in subsurface hydrothermal environments, whereas dioctahedral (Al, Fe3+-rich) smectite and widespread vertical horizonation of Fe/Mg-smectites, clay assemblages, and sulfates formed in variable aqueous environments on the surface of Mars. Our model for aluminosilicate formation on Mars is consistent with the observed geologic features, the diversity of aqueous mineralogies in ancient surface rocks, and state-of-the-art paleoclimate scenarios.

https://www.nasa.gov/content/exobiology-branch-code-ssx