Curiosity Rover: Abundant Siderite at Gale Crater
Ubajara, Gale Crater, Mars, "where Curiosity made the discovery of siderite".
The headline: "NASA's Curiosity Rover May Have Solved Mars' Missing Carbonate Mystery".
And the summary, by Kevin T. Smith, for Tutolo et al.↱:
A NASA social media account↱ explains, "Literally digging into the history of Mars, even just a few centimeters, often reveals important findings."
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Notes:
@NASAMars. "Literally digging into the history of Mars, even just a few centimeters, often reveals important findings." X. 17 April 2025. X.com. 17 April 2025. status/1912956557542986202
Friesen, Tara. "NASA's Curiosity Rover May Have Solved Mars' Missing Carbonate Mystery". NASA. 17 April 2025. NASA.gov. 17 April 2025. https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-fa...y-have-solved-mars-missing-carbonate-mystery/
Tutolo, Benjamin M., et al. "Carbonates identified by the Curiosity rover indicate a carbon cycle operated on ancient Mars". Science, v. 388, n. 6744. 18 April 2025. Science.org. 17 April 2025. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado9966
Ubajara, Gale Crater, Mars, "where Curiosity made the discovery of siderite".
The headline: "NASA's Curiosity Rover May Have Solved Mars' Missing Carbonate Mystery".
New findings from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover could provide an answer to the mystery of what happened to the planet's ancient atmosphere and how Mars has evolved over time.
Researchers have long believed that Mars once had a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and liquid water on the planet's surface. That carbon dioxide and water should have reacted with Martian rocks to create carbonate minerals. Until now, though, rover missions and near-infrared spectroscopy analysis from Mars-orbiting satellites haven't found the amounts of carbonate on the planet's surface predicted by this theory.
Reported in an April paper in Science, data from three of Curiosity's drill sites revealed the presence of siderite, an iron carbonate mineral, within the sulfate-rich rocky layers of Mount Sharp in Mars' Gale Crater.
"The discovery of abundant siderite in Gale Crater represents both a surprising and important breakthrough in our understanding of the geologic and atmospheric evolution of Mars," said Benjamin Tutolo, associate professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, and lead author of the paper.
Researchers have long believed that Mars once had a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and liquid water on the planet's surface. That carbon dioxide and water should have reacted with Martian rocks to create carbonate minerals. Until now, though, rover missions and near-infrared spectroscopy analysis from Mars-orbiting satellites haven't found the amounts of carbonate on the planet's surface predicted by this theory.
Reported in an April paper in Science, data from three of Curiosity's drill sites revealed the presence of siderite, an iron carbonate mineral, within the sulfate-rich rocky layers of Mount Sharp in Mars' Gale Crater.
"The discovery of abundant siderite in Gale Crater represents both a surprising and important breakthrough in our understanding of the geologic and atmospheric evolution of Mars," said Benjamin Tutolo, associate professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, and lead author of the paper.
And the summary, by Kevin T. Smith, for Tutolo et al.↱:
The Curiosity rover is gradually climbing a mountain located in Gale crater on Mars. Higher levels of the stratigraphy expose rocks that formed at later times. Tutolo et al. studied the composition of drill samples taken from a sulfate-rich layer (see the Perspective by Bishop and Lane). They found that the rocks contained abundant iron carbonate, which was invisible in previous orbital observations. If there are similar abundances of carbonate in other sulfate-rich layers across Mars, then those layers may contain a substantial reservoir of carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere. The carbonates found by the authors have partially decomposed, returning some carbon dioxide to the atmosphere: an ancient carbon cycle.
A NASA social media account↱ explains, "Literally digging into the history of Mars, even just a few centimeters, often reveals important findings."
____________________
Notes:
@NASAMars. "Literally digging into the history of Mars, even just a few centimeters, often reveals important findings." X. 17 April 2025. X.com. 17 April 2025. status/1912956557542986202
Friesen, Tara. "NASA's Curiosity Rover May Have Solved Mars' Missing Carbonate Mystery". NASA. 17 April 2025. NASA.gov. 17 April 2025. https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-fa...y-have-solved-mars-missing-carbonate-mystery/
Tutolo, Benjamin M., et al. "Carbonates identified by the Curiosity rover indicate a carbon cycle operated on ancient Mars". Science, v. 388, n. 6744. 18 April 2025. Science.org. 17 April 2025. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado9966