Clay mineral formation under oxidized conditions and implications for paleoenvironments and organic preservation on Mars.

ABSTRACT: Clay mineral-bearing locations have been targeted for martian exploration as potentially habitable environments and as possible repositories for the preservation of organic matter. Although organic matter has been detected at Gale Crater, Mars, its concentrations are lower than expected from meteoritic and indigenous igneous and hydrothermal reduced carbon. We conducted synthesis experiments motivated by the hypothesis that some clay mineral formation may have occurred under oxidized conditions conducive to the destruction of organics. Previous work has suggested that anoxic and/or reducing conditions are needed to synthesize the Fe-rich clay mineral nontronite at low temperatures. In contrast, our experiments demonstrated the rapid formation of Fe-rich clay minerals of variable crystallin

SUBMITTER: Gainey SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5663933 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature