The Deuterium to Hydrogen Ratio in the Water that Formed the Yellowknife Bay Mudstones in Gale Crater
A suite of isotope ratios of light elements in the present martian atmosphere (13C/12C, 15N/14N, 18O/16O, 38Ar/36Ar, and D/H) are all substantially enriched in the heavy element suggesting atmospheric loss to space over the past billions of years with preferential loss of the lighter isotope from ea...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20140005418 2023-05-15T18:45:40+02:00 The Deuterium to Hydrogen Ratio in the Water that Formed the Yellowknife Bay Mudstones in Gale Crater Mahaffy, Paul R. Kashyap, Srishti Atreya, Sushil K. Jones, J. Brunner, Anna E. Mcadam, Amy Catherine Navarro-Gonzales, Rafael Stern, Jennifer Claire Leshin, Laurie Ann Webster, Chris R. Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available March 17, 2014 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140005418 unknown Document ID: 20140005418 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140005418 Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright CASI Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration Astrophysics GSFC-E-DAA-TN13536 Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference; 17-21 Mar. 2013; The Woodlands, Texas; United States 2014 ftnasantrs 2019-07-21T00:31:51Z A suite of isotope ratios of light elements in the present martian atmosphere (13C/12C, 15N/14N, 18O/16O, 38Ar/36Ar, and D/H) are all substantially enriched in the heavy element suggesting atmospheric loss to space over the past billions of years with preferential loss of the lighter isotope from each pair. In situ measurements from MSL's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument [e.g. 1,2,3] have considerably refined previous measurements from the Viking mass spectrometers [e.g. 4], from remote spectroscopic observations [e.g. 5,6], and from martian meteorite studies [e.g. 7,8]. The persistence of habitable environments such as the ancient Yellowknife Bay lake recently revealed by measurements from the Curiosity rover [9] depends on the surface temperatures and the duration of an atmosphere thicker than that at present. Current and planned measurements from orbit with the Mars Express and MAVEN missions respectively intend to study the processes of atmospheric escape including solar wind interaction, sputtering, thermal escape, and dissociative recombination, and determine or refine the current rate of atmospheric loss caused by these and other mechanisms. The goal of these programs is to understand the physical processes sufficiently well so that robust extrapolations over the past billions of years can be made D/H is measured by both the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) and the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS) of the SAM suite. to predict the atmospheric and surface conditions on early Mars. However, the study of the history of martian atmospheric evolution will be greatly facilitated if we are able to also directly measure the isotopic composition of volatiles captured in rocks that are representative of the ancient atmosphere. To date, D/H is one of the most promising candidates for this study since water is the most abundant volatile thermally released from the Yellowknife Bay phylosilicates discovered by the SAM and CheMin experiments of MSL and its Other/Unknown Material Yellowknife NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Yellowknife Yellowknife Bay ENVELOPE(-114.336,-114.336,62.367,62.367) Bay Lake ENVELOPE(-100.964,-100.964,56.759,56.759) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
op_collection_id |
ftnasantrs |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration Astrophysics |
spellingShingle |
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration Astrophysics Mahaffy, Paul R. Kashyap, Srishti Atreya, Sushil K. Jones, J. Brunner, Anna E. Mcadam, Amy Catherine Navarro-Gonzales, Rafael Stern, Jennifer Claire Leshin, Laurie Ann Webster, Chris R. The Deuterium to Hydrogen Ratio in the Water that Formed the Yellowknife Bay Mudstones in Gale Crater |
topic_facet |
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration Astrophysics |
description |
A suite of isotope ratios of light elements in the present martian atmosphere (13C/12C, 15N/14N, 18O/16O, 38Ar/36Ar, and D/H) are all substantially enriched in the heavy element suggesting atmospheric loss to space over the past billions of years with preferential loss of the lighter isotope from each pair. In situ measurements from MSL's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument [e.g. 1,2,3] have considerably refined previous measurements from the Viking mass spectrometers [e.g. 4], from remote spectroscopic observations [e.g. 5,6], and from martian meteorite studies [e.g. 7,8]. The persistence of habitable environments such as the ancient Yellowknife Bay lake recently revealed by measurements from the Curiosity rover [9] depends on the surface temperatures and the duration of an atmosphere thicker than that at present. Current and planned measurements from orbit with the Mars Express and MAVEN missions respectively intend to study the processes of atmospheric escape including solar wind interaction, sputtering, thermal escape, and dissociative recombination, and determine or refine the current rate of atmospheric loss caused by these and other mechanisms. The goal of these programs is to understand the physical processes sufficiently well so that robust extrapolations over the past billions of years can be made D/H is measured by both the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) and the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS) of the SAM suite. to predict the atmospheric and surface conditions on early Mars. However, the study of the history of martian atmospheric evolution will be greatly facilitated if we are able to also directly measure the isotopic composition of volatiles captured in rocks that are representative of the ancient atmosphere. To date, D/H is one of the most promising candidates for this study since water is the most abundant volatile thermally released from the Yellowknife Bay phylosilicates discovered by the SAM and CheMin experiments of MSL and its |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Mahaffy, Paul R. Kashyap, Srishti Atreya, Sushil K. Jones, J. Brunner, Anna E. Mcadam, Amy Catherine Navarro-Gonzales, Rafael Stern, Jennifer Claire Leshin, Laurie Ann Webster, Chris R. |
author_facet |
Mahaffy, Paul R. Kashyap, Srishti Atreya, Sushil K. Jones, J. Brunner, Anna E. Mcadam, Amy Catherine Navarro-Gonzales, Rafael Stern, Jennifer Claire Leshin, Laurie Ann Webster, Chris R. |
author_sort |
Mahaffy, Paul R. |
title |
The Deuterium to Hydrogen Ratio in the Water that Formed the Yellowknife Bay Mudstones in Gale Crater |
title_short |
The Deuterium to Hydrogen Ratio in the Water that Formed the Yellowknife Bay Mudstones in Gale Crater |
title_full |
The Deuterium to Hydrogen Ratio in the Water that Formed the Yellowknife Bay Mudstones in Gale Crater |
title_fullStr |
The Deuterium to Hydrogen Ratio in the Water that Formed the Yellowknife Bay Mudstones in Gale Crater |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Deuterium to Hydrogen Ratio in the Water that Formed the Yellowknife Bay Mudstones in Gale Crater |
title_sort |
deuterium to hydrogen ratio in the water that formed the yellowknife bay mudstones in gale crater |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140005418 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-114.336,-114.336,62.367,62.367) ENVELOPE(-100.964,-100.964,56.759,56.759) |
geographic |
Yellowknife Yellowknife Bay Bay Lake |
geographic_facet |
Yellowknife Yellowknife Bay Bay Lake |
genre |
Yellowknife |
genre_facet |
Yellowknife |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20140005418 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140005418 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
_version_ |
1766236792626872320 |