Mars’s crust contains tremendous water reservoirs

It may date back 3, 9 billions of years… And contributes to an understanding of a past

viability in the Red Planet.

A new research has revealed that the Martian mantle contains at least two reservoirs of
hydrogen isotopes indicating a huge amount of stored water in the planet’s crust that existed
since at least 3, 9 billions of years ago.

Authors suggest in the study published Monday Marsh, 30 by ‘’Nature Geoscience

magazine’’, in defiance of the previous studies results, that it is perhaps due to the magma
ocean that the Martian mantle didn’t reach the homogeneous phase when the Red planet
was in the composition phase, as it is likely that it get water from at least two distinct
sources, early in its history.

Researchers used the secondary ion mass spectrometry for two of Martian meteorites: the
first one called ‘’ Allan Hills 84001’’ that was founded in Antarctica in 1904 and the second
one ‘’Northwest Africa 7034’’, in order to reconstruct the history of Mars and its planetary
origins. Moreover, they collected data on deuterium and hydrogen ratios existing in Mars
rocks and atmosphere. As a result they were able to reveal a similar hydrogen isotope in
both meteorites.

Furthermore, authors said that the Martian mantle is chemically heterogeneous and
contains large reservoirs of water.

The Planet Mars crust contains about 35% of the total estimated water beneath the surface.
And according to the recent study, this main quantity of water has to some extent a
homogenous isotopic composition since the first 660millions of years from Mars’s history.

« We are investigating the history of water in the crust of Mars, and our results demonstrate
that, unlike the previous studies, water in the Martian crust is separated from the evolution
of the Martian atmosphere, and the Martian crust had a fixed hydrogen isotope ratio
throughout its history. » Said Jessica Barnes, an assistant professor in planetary sciences in
Arizona university and the previous principal investigator in the study.
As she added: « We have found strong proofs that the inner part of the Planet Mars may not
be homogenous. In fact, it contains two different types of hydrogen isotopes that can be
related to two different sorts of geochemically Martian basalts. These results contravened the
idea that Mars had a magma ocean and indicate the presence of several sources of water on
this plane. »

The researcher said that the results of the study, that took four years, are important because
they enable the reconstruction of the geological history of Mars regarding water, and the
understanding of a past capacity of living on it as well.