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Formation of manganese oxides on early Mars due to active halogen cycling

Nature Geoscience volume 16, pages 133–139 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

In situ rover investigations on Mars have discovered manganese oxides as fracture-filling materials at Gale and Endeavour craters. Previous studies interpreted these minerals as indicators of atmospheric oxygen on early Mars. By contrast, we propose that the oxidation of manganese by oxygen is highly unlikely because of exceedingly slow reaction kinetics under Mars-like conditions and therefore requires more reactive oxidants. Here we conduct kinetic experiments to determine the reactivity of the oxyhalogen species chlorate and bromate for oxidizing dissolved Mn(ii) in Mars-like fluids. We find that oxyhalogen species, which are widespread on the surface of Mars, induce substantially greater manganese oxidation rates than O2. From comparisons of the potential oxidation rates of all available oxidants (including reactive oxygen species peroxide and superoxide), we suggest that the oxyhalogen species are the most plausible manganese oxidants on Mars. In addition, our experiments precipitated the manganese oxide mineral nsutite, which is spectrally similar to the dark manganese accumulations reported on Mars. Our results provide a feasible pathway to form manganese oxides under expected geochemical conditions on early Mars and suggest that these phases may record an active halogen cycle rather than substantial atmospheric oxygenation.

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Fig. 1: Timescales of Mn(ii) oxidation by oxygen.
Fig. 2: Rates of Mn(ii) oxidation by bromate.
Fig. 3: Mineral products of Mn(ii) oxidation by bromate.
Fig. 4: Potential pathways of halogen cycling on Mars, including reactions with iron and manganese.

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Data availability

The data associated with the manuscript are available at: https://figshare.com/s/e12d62da416302225cf3.

Code availability

The code to model Mn(ii) oxidation by O2 in the Geochemist’s Workbench is available at https://figshare.com/articles/online_resource/MnII_oxidation_species_Morgan_V7_rea/21066232.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by NASA Science Mission Directorate Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) programme through award no. 80NSSC19K1521. J.G.C. was supported by the NASA Exobiology programme through award no. 80NSSC18K1292. G.J.L. was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant no. DGE-1745038 and DGE-2139839. Discussions with B. Jolliff, R. Arvidson and J. Hurowitz improved this manuscript. P. Carpenter is thanked for assistance with XRD data collection and Rietveld refinements. R. Arvidson and A. Knight are thanked for assistance in VNIR data collection.

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Author notes

  1. Kaushik Mitra

    Present address: Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

  2. Eleanor L. Moreland

    Present address: Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA

    Kaushik Mitra, Eleanor L. Moreland, Greg J. Ledingham & Jeffrey G. Catalano

  2. McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA

    Jeffrey G. Catalano

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Contributions

K.M. and J.G.C. designed the study. K.M. conducted the experiments with assistance from E.L.M. G.L. contributed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses. J.G.C. and K.M. performed the thermodynamic and kinetic modeling. K.M. analyzed the results and wrote the original manuscript, with additional text provided by J.G. and further editing by G.L. and E.L.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jeffrey G. Catalano.

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Nature Geoscience thanks Yasuhito Sekine and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Tamara Goldin, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Reaction of Martian basalt with water equilibrated with 0.5 bar CO2 and 0.03 bar O2.

(a) Relationship of dissolved CO2 and O2 concentrations to pH. (b) Mass fraction of mineral alteration productions.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Mineralogy of the solids produced by oxidation of dissolved Mn(II) by 10 mmol L−1 bromate.

XRD patterns of the solids produced by reaction of 10 mmol L−1 Mn(II) with 10 mmol L−1 bromate in 100 mmol L−1 magnesium chloride fluids. Patterns are visually offset for clarity. Diagnostic peaks are labeled and indicated with dashed lines. See Extended Data Table 4 for complete sample details.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Images of the solids produced by oxidation of dissolved Mn(II) by bromate.

Minerals precipitated following reaction in magnesium chloride (a-d) and magnesium sulfate (e and f) fluids.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Comparison of VNIR spectra of the manganese oxide mineral detected at Endeavor crater, Mars, and produced in Mn(II) oxidation experiments.

Solids produced from oxidation of dissolved Mn(II) by bromate in (a) magnesium chloride and (b) magnesium sulfate fluids. The labels indicate the initial pH of the samples. See Extended Data Table 5 for complete sample details.

Extended Data Table 1 Homogeneous and heterogeneous Mn(II) oxidation rates by oxygen
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 Fluid composition of the kinetic experiments shown in Fig. S1 with [Mn(II)] ≈ [ClO3−] ≈ 100 mmol L−1
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Extended Data Table 3 Fluid composition of the kinetic experiments shown in Fig. 2 with [Mn(II)] ≈ [BrO3−] ≈ 100 mmol L−1
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Extended Data Table 4 Fluid composition of the mineral precipitation experiments shown in Extended Data Fig. 2 with approximately 100 mmol L−1 [Mn(II)], and 10 mmol L−1 [BrO3−]
Full size table
Extended Data Table 5 Fluid composition of the mineral precipitation experiments shown in Fig. 3 with [Mn(II)] ≈ [BrO3−] ≈ 100 mmol L−1
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Extended Data Table 6 Percentage of Mn(II) oxidation in open systems buffered by 0.21 bar O2 in presence of 4 ×10−4 bar CO2 under identical conditions as the experiments with oxyhalogens
Full size table

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–4, Tables 1–4 and Discussion.

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Mitra, K., Moreland, E.L., Ledingham, G.J. et al. Formation of manganese oxides on early Mars due to active halogen cycling. Nat. Geosci. 16, 133–139 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01094-y

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