Oxygen isotopic evidence that Gale crater, Mars, was home to an Early Hesperian water reservoir that underwent significant evaporation

TL;DR

The study shows Gale crater on Mars once held a large water reservoir that evaporated significantly, based on oxygen isotope data from rocks analyzed by the Curiosity rover.

Contribution

The paper provides new evidence of a significant evaporative water cycle in Gale crater during Mars' Early Hesperian period using oxygen isotope measurements.

Findings

Mineral-bound water in Gale crater rocks shows extreme 18O enrichments, indicating evaporation in a low-humidity atmosphere.

Deuterium enrichments suggest hydrogen loss to space and chemical weathering in early Mars environments.

Oxygen isotopic data from smectite clays support a lacustrine setting with significant evaporative enrichment.

Abstract

We present isotopic measurements of mineral-bound water from rocks sampled by the Curiosity rover. These hydrous minerals’ strong 18O enrichments stand apart from prior observations of ancient martian water reservoirs. Extreme deuterium enrichments record atmospheric hydrogen loss and reveal chemical weathering in early martian near-surface environments. The amplitude of 18O enrichment and its correlation with deuterium in related samples indicate formation in an ancient lacustrine setting that underwent extensive evaporation into a low-humidity atmosphere—an insight into the early martian hydrologic cycle that complements previous sedimentological, mineralogical, and stratigraphic evidence. These data provide the clearest view to date of a martian lake’s hydrology during a period when climate change, chemical weathering, and prebiotic chemistry were active on Mars.

Simultaneous measurements of HDO, H218O, and H216O in water evolved during pyrolysis of powdered rock samples acquired by the Curiosity rover within Gale crater’s clay-bearing units indicate extreme and variable heavy-isotope enrichments averaging ~4.5 times the D/H ratio and ~1.03 times the 18O/16O ratio of terrestrial seawater. These enrichments are recorded in water desorbed from mineral surfaces and evolved from poorly crystalline phases, hydrated salts, jarosite, and clays. All evolved waters are deuterium-enriched relative to common terrestrial waters, reflecting hydrogen loss to space. Because oxygen in structurally bound hydroxyl groups is least likely to exchange with other sources over geologic timescales, we focus on oxygen in water evolved during dehydroxylation of smectite clays. Several samples have 18O/16O ratios commensurate with precipitation from, or near-complete equilibration with, water moderately 18O-enriched relative to terrestrial meteoric waters—consistent with other evidence that Mars’s hydrosphere is basically like Earth’s in terms of oxygen isotopes. Unlike hydrogen, oxygen atmospheric escape did not lead to extreme 18O enrichments on Mars. Locally, however, most Gale smectites’ 18O/16O values require a pronounced 18O-enrichment of their parental waters. On Earth, the most extreme 18O enrichments in surface waters are found in closed basins having undergone significant evaporative loss into a low-humidity atmosphere, and the 18O/16O of authigenic clay minerals formed in these environs reflect those enrichments. A similar process acting on the hydrologic reservoir local to Gale at the time of clay formation and early diagenesis is a plausible explanation for the distinctive oxygen isotopic compositions of these clays.

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