Article
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
New thermobarometers for martian igneous rocks, and some implications for secular cooling on Mars
-
Jerrod Lessel
and
Keith Putirka
Published/Copyright:
September 30, 2015
Abstract
Tests show that terrestrial mineral+liquid geothermobarometers are not well equipped for use on martian rocks, which tend to have much higher FeO and lower Al2O3. Here, we present new calibrations of thermometers and barometers using experimental data on martian samples from the literature. These new models recover P-T conditions with a greater accuracy compared to models calibrated using terrestrial compositions. We applied these new calibrations to primitive martian mantle-derived melts Yamato 980459 (Y98) and Northwest Africa (NWA) 6234 and several surface basalts (Gusev). Our new models yield similar P-T conditions for NWA and Y98 compositions of 1.4-1.7 GPa and 1500-1550 °C, which are close to estimates by most prior studies. Our models yield somewhat lower P estimates compared to Lee et al. (2009), apparently because our Si-activity model (from Beattie 1993) includes an Al2O3-correction (where lower Al2O3, as in martian samples, leads to lower P estimates). For Gusev basalt compositions, our new models yield P-T estimates of 1.0-1.3 GPa and 1340-1390 °C; furthermore, we also obtain P = 1.03 GPa and T = 1340 °C, for a Gusev composition from Monders et al. (2007), which comes very close to the Monders et al. (2007) estimate for multiple saturation, of 1.0 GPa and 1325 °C, derived from phase saturation relationships. Given the different ages of these meteorites, with Gusev at 3.65 Ga (Greeley et al. 2005) and Y98 at 4.3 Ga (Bouvier et al. 2005, 2008, 2009; Werner et al. 2014), their thermal contrasts may represent secular cooling of Mars. We estimate a mantle potential temperature difference of ~200 °C, with mantle potential temperatures of 1450 ±50 °C for Gusev and 1650 ±50 °C for Y98; this implies a cooling rate of 300 °C/Ga. This would appear to be a much more rapid rate of cooling compared to Earth, as may be expected by Mars’ higher surface/volume ratio.
Keywords: Geothermobarometry; thermobarometry; martian meteorites; experimental petrology; martian geology; thermometer; barometer; Mars; petrology; SNC meteorites
Received: 2013-9-1
Accepted: 2015-4-21
Published Online: 2015-9-30
Published in Print: 2015-10-1
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
You are currently not able to access this content.
You are currently not able to access this content.
Articles in the same Issue
- Reaching new boundaries for in-situ U-Th geochronology
- Normal to inverse transition in martian spinel: Understanding the interplay between chromium, vanadium, and iron valence state partitioning through a crystal-chemical lens
- Accuracy of timescales retrieved from diffusion modeling in olivine: A 3D perspective
- Phosphoran olivine overgrowths: Implications for multiple impacts to the Main Group pallasite parent body
- Diffusion of phosphorus in olivine and molten basalt
- Oceanic lavas sampling the high-3He/4He mantle reservoir: Primitive, depleted, or re-enriched?
- U-Th baddeleyite geochronology and its significance to date the emplacement of silica undersaturated magmas
- Polycrystallinity of green rust minerals and their synthetic analogs: Implications for particle formation and reactivity in complex systems
- Fe pre-enrichment: A new method to counteract iron loss in experiments on basaltic melts
- Fe-Mg diffusion in spinel: New experimental data and a point defect model
- Age, petrochemistry, and origin of a REE-rich mineralization in the Longs Peak-St. Vrain batholith, near Jamestown, Colorado (U.S.A.)
- Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a tool for in situ mapping and textural interpretation of lithium in pegmatite minerals
- Evidence for Nb2+ and Ta3+ in silicate melts under highly reducing conditions: A XANES study
- Elastic softening of leucite and the lack of polar domain boundaries
- New thermobarometers for martian igneous rocks, and some implications for secular cooling on Mars
- An updated calibration of the plagioclase-liquid hygrometer-thermometer applicable to basalts through rhyolites
- Water effects on the anharmonic properties of forsterite
- Synthesis and structure of a stuffed derivative of α-quartz, Mg0.5AlSiO4
- Equation of state and elasticity of the 3.65 Å phase: Implications for the X-discontinuity
- Ca-Zn solid solutions in C2/c pyroxenes: Synthesis, crystal structure, and implications for Zn geochemistry
- Aluminum environments in synthetic Ca-Tschermak clinopyroxene (CaAlAlSiO6) from Rietveld refinement, 27Al NMR, and first-principles calculations
- Trioctahedral Fe-rich micas: Relationships between magnetic behavior and crystal chemistry
- High-pressure compressibility and phase stability of Mn-dolomite (kutnohorite)
- Composition dependence of spin transition in (Mg,Fe)SiO3 bridgmanite
- Oriented multiphase needles in garnet from ultrahigh-temperature granulites, Connecticut, U.S.A.
- Solubility and solution mechanisms of chlorine and fluorine in aluminosilicate melts at high pressure and high temperature
- Volatiles in magmas related to the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption: Experiments vs. natural findings
- Aluminosilicate melts and glasses at 1 to 3 GPa: Temperature and pressure effects on recovered structural and density changes
- Role of volatiles (S, Cl, H2O) and silica activity on the crystallization of haüyne and nosean in phonolitic magmas (Eifel, Germany and Saghro, Morocco)
- P-V-T equation of state and high-pressure behavior of CaCO3 aragonite
- A possible new Al-bearing hydrous Mg-silicate (23 Å phase) in the deep upper mantle
- Synthesis of large wadsleyite single crystals by solid-state recrystallization
- Decagonite, Al71Ni24Fe5, a quasicrystal with decagonal symmetry from the Khatyrka CV3 carbonaceous chondrite
- Earth’s “missing” minerals
- Magnetite-rutile symplectite derived from ilmenite-hematite solid solution in the Xinjie Fe-Ti oxide-bearing, mafic-ultramafic layered intrusion (SW China)
- New Mineral Names
- Book Review: Arsenic: Environmental Geochemistry, Mineralogy, and Microbiology, RIMG Volume 79.
Keywords for this article
Geothermobarometry;
thermobarometry;
martian meteorites;
experimental petrology;
martian geology;
thermometer;
barometer;
Mars;
petrology;
SNC meteorites
Articles in the same Issue
- Reaching new boundaries for in-situ U-Th geochronology
- Normal to inverse transition in martian spinel: Understanding the interplay between chromium, vanadium, and iron valence state partitioning through a crystal-chemical lens
- Accuracy of timescales retrieved from diffusion modeling in olivine: A 3D perspective
- Phosphoran olivine overgrowths: Implications for multiple impacts to the Main Group pallasite parent body
- Diffusion of phosphorus in olivine and molten basalt
- Oceanic lavas sampling the high-3He/4He mantle reservoir: Primitive, depleted, or re-enriched?
- U-Th baddeleyite geochronology and its significance to date the emplacement of silica undersaturated magmas
- Polycrystallinity of green rust minerals and their synthetic analogs: Implications for particle formation and reactivity in complex systems
- Fe pre-enrichment: A new method to counteract iron loss in experiments on basaltic melts
- Fe-Mg diffusion in spinel: New experimental data and a point defect model
- Age, petrochemistry, and origin of a REE-rich mineralization in the Longs Peak-St. Vrain batholith, near Jamestown, Colorado (U.S.A.)
- Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a tool for in situ mapping and textural interpretation of lithium in pegmatite minerals
- Evidence for Nb2+ and Ta3+ in silicate melts under highly reducing conditions: A XANES study
- Elastic softening of leucite and the lack of polar domain boundaries
- New thermobarometers for martian igneous rocks, and some implications for secular cooling on Mars
- An updated calibration of the plagioclase-liquid hygrometer-thermometer applicable to basalts through rhyolites
- Water effects on the anharmonic properties of forsterite
- Synthesis and structure of a stuffed derivative of α-quartz, Mg0.5AlSiO4
- Equation of state and elasticity of the 3.65 Å phase: Implications for the X-discontinuity
- Ca-Zn solid solutions in C2/c pyroxenes: Synthesis, crystal structure, and implications for Zn geochemistry
- Aluminum environments in synthetic Ca-Tschermak clinopyroxene (CaAlAlSiO6) from Rietveld refinement, 27Al NMR, and first-principles calculations
- Trioctahedral Fe-rich micas: Relationships between magnetic behavior and crystal chemistry
- High-pressure compressibility and phase stability of Mn-dolomite (kutnohorite)
- Composition dependence of spin transition in (Mg,Fe)SiO3 bridgmanite
- Oriented multiphase needles in garnet from ultrahigh-temperature granulites, Connecticut, U.S.A.
- Solubility and solution mechanisms of chlorine and fluorine in aluminosilicate melts at high pressure and high temperature
- Volatiles in magmas related to the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption: Experiments vs. natural findings
- Aluminosilicate melts and glasses at 1 to 3 GPa: Temperature and pressure effects on recovered structural and density changes
- Role of volatiles (S, Cl, H2O) and silica activity on the crystallization of haüyne and nosean in phonolitic magmas (Eifel, Germany and Saghro, Morocco)
- P-V-T equation of state and high-pressure behavior of CaCO3 aragonite
- A possible new Al-bearing hydrous Mg-silicate (23 Å phase) in the deep upper mantle
- Synthesis of large wadsleyite single crystals by solid-state recrystallization
- Decagonite, Al71Ni24Fe5, a quasicrystal with decagonal symmetry from the Khatyrka CV3 carbonaceous chondrite
- Earth’s “missing” minerals
- Magnetite-rutile symplectite derived from ilmenite-hematite solid solution in the Xinjie Fe-Ti oxide-bearing, mafic-ultramafic layered intrusion (SW China)
- New Mineral Names
- Book Review: Arsenic: Environmental Geochemistry, Mineralogy, and Microbiology, RIMG Volume 79.
