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Rapin, W; Dromart, G; Clark, B C; Schieber, J; Kite, E S; Kah, L C; Thompson, L M; Gasnault, O; Lasue, J; Meslin, P-Y; Gasda, P J; Lanza, N L
Nature (London), 08/2023, Volume: 620, Issue: 7973Journal Article
The presence of perennially wet surface environments on early Mars is well documented , but little is known about short-term episodicity in the early hydroclimate . Post-depositional processes driven by such short-term fluctuations may produce distinct structures, yet these are rarely preserved in the sedimentary record . Incomplete geological constraints have led global models of the early Mars water cycle and climate to produce diverging results . Here we report observations by the Curiosity rover at Gale Crater indicating that high-frequency wet-dry cycling occurred in early Martian surface environments. We observe exhumed centimetric polygonal ridges with sulfate enrichments, joined at Y-junctions, that record cracks formed in fresh mud owing to repeated wet-dry cycles of regular intensity. Instead of sporadic hydrological activity induced by impacts or volcanoes , our findings point to a sustained, cyclic, possibly seasonal, climate on early Mars. Furthermore, as wet-dry cycling can promote prebiotic polymerization , the Gale evaporitic basin may have been particularly conducive to these processes. The observed polygonal patterns are physically and temporally associated with the transition from smectite clays to sulfate-bearing strata, a globally distributed mineral transition . This indicates that the Noachian-Hesperian transition (3.8-3.6 billion years ago) may have sustained an Earth-like climate regime and surface environments favourable to prebiotic evolution.
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