Amazonian chemical weathering rate derived from stony meteorite finds at Meridiani Planum on Mars

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13459
• Publication Date: 2016-11-11T10:56:48Z
• Authors: Christian Schröder; Phil A. Bland; Matthew P. Golombek; James W. Ashley; Nicholas H. Warner; John A. Grant
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; 13. Climate action; Science; Q; 500; 523; meteoritics; 01 natural sciences; Article; geochemistry; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Spacecraft exploring Mars such as the Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, well Science Laboratory or Curiosity rover, have accumulated evidence for wet habitable conditions on early more than 3 billion years ago. Current conditions, by contrast, are cold, extremely arid seemingly inhospitable. To evaluate exactly how dry today's environment is, it is important to understand ongoing current weathering processes. Here we present chemical rates determined Mars. We use oxidation of iron in stony meteorites investigated Rover Opportunity at Meridiani Planum. Their maximum exposure age constrained formation Victoria crater their minimum erosion meteorites. The thus derived ∼1 4 orders magnitude slower that similar found Antarctica where slowest observed Earth.