[meteorite-list] Was There Water on Mars Long Enough For The Origination of Life?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Oct 19 12:28:38 2006
Message-ID: <200610191628.JAA24743_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2006&itemno=568

Was there water on Mars long enough for the origination of life?
By Susan Trulove
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
October 19, 2006

BLACKSBURG, VA. -- Based on the lovely green rock,
olivine, also known as the gemstone, peridot, a Virginia Tech graduate
student has created a mineral lifetime diagram that provides the a clue
to when and for how long there might have been water on Mars.

Amanda Albright Olsen of Altoona, Pa., a doctoral student in geosciences
at Virginia Tech, will present the research at the Geological Society of
America national meeting in Philadelphia on Oct. 22-25. Virginia Tech
Geosciences Professor Donald Rimstidt of Christiansburg, Va., is co-author.

Olivine, a silicate mineral rich in magnesium and iron, is found on
earth in volcanic rock (basalts). It has also been spotted on Mars -
most recently and in significant amounts by NASA's Mars Odyssey
spacecraft (Geology, June 2005). Because life requires liquid water and
because olivine dissolves in water, Olsen set out to establish how long
it takes olivine to dissolve. The answer could help scientists determine
if there was liquid water on Mars long enough for life to develop.

"Our goal is to produce a robust analysis of olivine dissolution that
can be used to predict olivine grain lifetimes," Olsen said.

She used published information and laboratory studies to construct a
baseline model, and introduced controlling factors, such as pH and
temperature. Since environmental factors have often resulted in slower
dissolution rates in the field than in the lab, she compared her results
with an analysis of olivine in natural environments by Virginia Tech
Geoscience Professor Michal Kowalewski and Rimstidt (2003), who
determined average mineral grain lifetimes based on radiometric dates.

Olsen and Rimstidt's conclusion is that the Martian olivine could take
between slightly less than a million years to as long as many millions
of years to dissolve in water. She cautions that pH is a highly
controlling factor and a more precise estimate awaits information on the
chemical conditions on the Mars surface.

"Amanda's research will be a tool to help others pin it down," Rimstidt
said.

"Regardless of what physiochemical conditions that we postulate for
early Martian history, we can now propose a scenario and ask, 'Is it
reasonable to expect that life could have originated in this time
frame?'" Olsen said.

Olsen will present the paper, "Using mineral lifetime diagrams:
Predicting olivine grain lifetimes on Earth and Mars," at 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 25, in Pennsylvania Convention Center room 111 AB.

Contact for more information

Amanda Olsen, amalbrig_at_vt.edu or 540-231-1992

http://www.geos.vt.edu/people/amalbrig/

Dr. J. Donald Rimstidt, Professor of Geochemistry, jdr02_at_vt.edu or
540-231-6589

http://www.geos.vt.edu/people/jdr02/
Received on Thu 19 Oct 2006 12:28:36 PM PDT