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Perspectives on Atmospheric Evolution from Noble Gas and Nitrogen Isotopes on Earth, Mars & Venus

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Abstract

The composition of an atmosphere has integrated the geological history of the entire planetary body. However, the long-term evolutions of the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets are not well documented. For Earth, there were until recently only few direct records of atmosphere’s composition in the distant past, and insights came mainly from geochemical or physical proxies and/or from atmospheric models pushed back in time. Here we review innovative approaches on new terrestrial samples that led to the determination of the elemental and isotopic compositions of key geochemical tracers, namely noble gases and nitrogen. Such approaches allowed one to investigate the atmosphere’s evolution through geological period of time, and to set stringent constraints on the past atmospheric pressure and on the salinity of the Archean oceans. For Mars, we review the current state of knowledge obtained from analyses of Martian meteorites, and from the direct measurements of the composition of the present-day atmosphere by rovers and spacecrafts. Based on these measurements, we explore divergent models of the Martian and Terrestrial atmospheric evolutions. For Venus, only little is known, evidencing the critical need for dedicated missions.

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Acknowledgements

G.A. acknowledges the DIM ACAV+ program (Région Ile-de-France) for its financial support. B.M. acknowledges the European Research Council (grant PHOTONIS 695618 to B.M.).

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  1. Université de Paris, Institut de physique du globe de Paris, CNRS, 75005, Paris, France

    Guillaume Avice

  2. Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, UMR 7358 CNRS & Université de Lorraine, 15 Rue Notre Dame des Pauvres, 54501, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France

    Bernard Marty

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Avice, G., Marty, B. Perspectives on Atmospheric Evolution from Noble Gas and Nitrogen Isotopes on Earth, Mars & Venus. Space Sci Rev 216, 36 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00655-0

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