Scripps Oceanography Helps Understand Martian Geology by Analyzing Ancient Meteorites

Scripps Institution of Oceanography is doing work that is out of this world — specifically work relating to the unique geology of Mars, which gives the scientific community a better understanding of early life on our own planet.

“Martian meteorites are the only physical materials we have available from Mars,” said Scripps Institution of Oceanography geologist James Day in a release, who with his colleagues published a paper on the geological evolution of the planet in the May 31 issue of the open-access journal Science Advances.

“They enable us to make precise and accurate measurements and then quantify processes that occurred within Mars and close to the martian surface. They provide direct information on Mars’ composition that can ground truth mission science, like the ongoing Perseverance rover operations taking place there.”

The Scripps research team analyzed meteorites found at sites in Antarctica and Africa that formed on Mars more than a billion years ago. Perhaps 11 million years ago, a large meteor hit the planet, shearing away some of the Martian crust and sending rocks into space — some of which then landed on Earth in the form of meteorites.

Scientists are able to identify Mars as the place of origin of these meteorites because they are relatively young, indicating that they come from a recently active planet. They also have distinct compositions of oxygen, and they retain the composition of Mars’ atmosphere measured on the surface by the Viking landers in the 1970s.

The analysis has shown that Mars has a distinct structure in its mantle and crust with discernible reservoirs, an atmospherically altered upper crust to the planet, a complex deeper crust and a mantle where plumes from deep within Mars have penetrated to the base of the crust.

“What’s remarkable is that Mars’ volcanism has incredible similarities, but also differences, to Earth,” said Day, who added that it shows similarities to recent volcano activity in places like Hawaii, where newer volcanoes press down on the planet’s mantle to generate further volcanic activity through tectonic forces.

“On the other hand, the reservoirs in Mars are extremely ancient, separating from one another shortly after the red planet formed,” Day said.

“On Earth, plate tectonics has helped to remix reservoirs back together over time. In this sense, Mars provides an important link between what the early Earth may have looked like from how it looks today.”

Researcher Marine Paquet of Scripps Oceanography and colleagues from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the French National Centre for Scientific Research contributed to the study. The research was funded by NASA’s Solar Systems Workings and Emerging Worlds program.