Aqueous geochemistry on early Mars

Abstract

A geochemical cycle model is presented for the interaction between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and regolith of Mars. It was developed to study how this interaction might have produced the present Martian environment from a primitive Martian environment much like that of the primitive Earth. The model is a simple system, consisting of an unweathered starting material (calcium-bearing and magnesium-bearing silicates), a CO 2 atmosphere, an ocean of water in contact with both the atmosphere and the unweathering starting material, and both calcite and dolomite precipitates. Several interesting points arise from this model. A 1-bar CO 2; atmosphere can be removed by carbonate precipitation alone in about half a billion years. This is roughly fifty times longer than earlier estimates, which were not based on time-varying models ( Fanale et al., 1982; Carr, 1986; Pollack et al., 1987). One of the chief problems in Martian geology has been how to explain the large number and wide variety of surface features that were apparently formed by aqueous erosion. This longer atmospheric lifetime may be enough to explain the large number of channels seen on older Martian terrain. If the atmosphere started out with more than 1 bar of CO 2, it would take correspondingly longer to remove it. If there should be no other means to remove CO 2 from the atmosphere, this long time constant would indicate that the atmosphere could never have contained more than a few bars of CO 2, or else there would still be remnants present today. The increase in alkalinity of the ocean as the atmosphere disappears, even without the effects of reduction in the amount of water available, indicates that evaporite deposits may have formed on Mars. If these deposits are still present, they may even yet contain some liquid water.