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Record of the ancient martian hydrosphere and atmosphere preserved in zircon from a martian meteorite

Nature Geoscience volume 7, pages 638–642 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Mars exhibits ample evidence for an ancient surface hydrosphere. The oxygen isotope compositions of carbonate minerals and alteration products in martian meteorites suggest that this ancient hydrosphere was not in isotopic equilibrium with the martian lithosphere1,2,3,4. Martian meteorite NWA 7533 is composed of regolith breccia from the heavily cratered terrains of ancient Mars and contains zircon grains for which U–Pb ages have been reported5. Here we report variations between the oxygen isotopic compositions of four zircon grains from NWA 7533. We propose that these variations can be explained if the mantle melts from which the zircon crystallized approximately 4.43 Gyr ago had assimiliated 17O-enriched regolith materials, and that some of the zircon grains, while in a metamict state, were later altered by low-temperature fluids near the surface less than 1.7 Gyr ago. Enrichment of the martian regolith in 17O before the zircon crystallized, presumably through exchange with the 17O-enriched atmosphere or hydrosphere during surface alteration, suggests that the thick primary atmosphere of Mars was lost within the first 120 Myr after accretion. We conclude that the observed variation of 17O anomalies in zircon from NWA 7533 points to prolonged interaction between the martian regolith, atmosphere and hydrosphere.

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Figure 1: Oxygen isotope compositions of martian zircon.
Figure 2: Relationships between oxygen isotope compositions and 207Pb/206Pb.
Figure 3: Schematic models of evolution of oxygen isotope compositions in martian zircon.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and Swedish Research Council grants to A.A.N. and M.J.W and by grants from NASA to M.H. The Nordsim facility is operated as a joint Nordic infrastructure. This is Nordsim publication 378.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, Swedish Museum of Natural History, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden

    A. A. Nemchin & M. J. Whitehouse

  2. Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia

    A. A. Nemchin & M. Grange

  3. Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Science and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32310, USA

    M. Humayun

  4. Institut de Minéralogie de Physique des Matériaux et Cosmochimie (IMPMC), Sorbonne Université, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, UPMC Université Paris 06, 61 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France

    R. H. Hewins, B. Zanda & C. Fieni

  5. Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA

    R. H. Hewins

  6. Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes, CNRS UMR 6112, Université de Nantes, 2 Rue de la Houssinière, BP 92208 44322 Nantes Cédex 3, France,

    J-P. Lorand

  7. Department of Applied Physics, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia

    A. Kennedy

  8. Ecole Normale Supérieure, UMR 8538, 75231 Paris CEDEX 5, France

    D. Deldicque

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  1. A. A. Nemchin
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Contributions

A.A.N., M.H. and M.J.W. conceived the manuscript, directed the research and wrote the manuscript; R.H.H., J-P.L., M.G. and A.K. contributed to the interpretation of data and the revision of the manuscript; M.J.W. and A.A.N. performed oxygen isotope and U–Pb image analyses; B.Z. and C.F. prepared polished samples for this study; R.H.H. and B.Z. performed petrological studies; D.D., J-P.L. and B.Z. located and imaged zircon by scanning electron microscopy.

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Correspondence to A. A. Nemchin.

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Nemchin, A., Humayun, M., Whitehouse, M. et al. Record of the ancient martian hydrosphere and atmosphere preserved in zircon from a martian meteorite. Nature Geosci 7, 638–642 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2231

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