Manganese-rich sandstones as an indicator of ancient oxic lake water conditions in Gale crater, Mars

Technical Report · Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2377937· OSTI ID:2377937

Gasda, Patrick J. ^[1]; Lanza, Nina Louise ^[1]; Meslin, Pierre-Yves ^[2]; Lamm, Sarah N. ^[3]; Cousin, Agnes ^[2]; Anderson, Ryan ^[4]; Forni, Olivier ^[2]; Swanner, Elizabeth ^[5]; l'Haridon, Jonas ^[6]; Frydenvang, Jens ^[7]; Thomas, Nancy ^[8]; Gwizd, S. ^[9]; Stein, N. ^[8]; Fischer, W. W. ^[8]; Hurowitz, Joel ^[10]; Sumner, Dawn ^[11]; Rivera-Hernandez, Francis ^[12]; Crossey, Laura ^[13]; Ollila, Ann Martha ^[1]; Essunfeld, Ari ^[1] ; Newsom, Horton E. ^[13]; Clark, Ben ^[14]; Wiens, Roger C. ^[15]; Gasnault, Olivier ^[2]; Clegg, Samuel M. ^[1]; Maurice, Sylvestre ^[2]; Delapp, Dorothea Marcia ^[1]; Reyes-Newell, Adriana ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Univ. of Toulouse (France). Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (France)
3. Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States)
4. US Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ (United States). Astrogeology Science Center
5. Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
6. European Space Foundation, Strasbourg (France)
7. Copenhagen Univ. (Denmark)
8. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
9. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL)
10. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
11. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
12. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
13. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
14. Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO (United States)
15. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)

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.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• DOE Contract Number: 89233218CNA000001
• OSTI ID: 2377937
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--23-25511
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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58 GEOSCIENCES