Organic carbon concentrations in 3.5-billion-year-old lacustrine mudstones of Mars.

ABSTRACT: The Sample Analysis at Mars instrument stepped combustion experiment on a Yellowknife Bay mudstone at Gale crater, Mars revealed the presence of organic carbon of Martian and meteoritic origins. The combustion experiment was designed to access refractory organic carbon in Mars surface sediments by heating samples in the presence of oxygen to combust carbon to CO₂. Four steps were performed, two at low temperatures (less than ∼550 °C) and two at high temperatures (up to ∼870 °C). More than 950 μg C/g was released at low temperatures (with an isotopic composition of δ¹³C = +1.5 ± 3.8‰) representing a minimum of 431 μg C/g indigenous organic and inorganic Martian carbon components. Above 550 °C, 273 ± 30 μg C/g was evolved as CO₂ and CO (with estimated δ¹

SUBMITTER: Stern JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9271195 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature