Curiosity rover confirms source of seasonal methane spikes on Mars

UPI ^ | April 2, 2019 / 2:30 PM | By Brooks Hays

[Red Badger]

"Our results support the idea that methane release on Mars might be characterized by small, transient geological events," researcher Frank Daerden said.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe measured methane in the Martian atmosphere a day after NASA's Curiosity rover detected the gas in Gale Crater. Photo by ESA

=============================================================

April 2 (UPI) -- Some 15 years ago, a European probe measured traces of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Now, NASA's Curiosity rover and the European Space Agency's Mars Express have confirmed the gas' presence in the air above Gale Crater.

"The presence of methane could enhance habitability and may even be a signature of life," researchers wrote in a new paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

On June 15, 2013, NASA's Curiosity rover picked up a methane spike measuring 6 parts per billion in air samples collected and analyzed inside Gale Crater. The next day, ESA's Mars Express probe captured air samples with a methane concentration of 15.5 parts per billion as it whizzed through the atmosphere above Gale Crater.

The independent confirmation by two spacecraft was a coincidence.

"We were very lucky, as this is not the result of coordinated observations," Marco Giuranna, lead author of the new Nature Geoscience paper and a planetary scientist at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Rome, told Space.com. "Just by chance!"

To find the likely source of the methane, scientists used computer models to closely analyze the surface structures found in Gale Crater, as well as the surrounding region. Algorithms compared the various surface features to environs on Earth that are known to yield methane emissions.

On Earth, methane is typically a sign of life. But the new analysis suggests a frozen slab of ice or permafrost containing methane, located beneath tectonic faults outside of Gale Crater, is the most logical explanation for the Red Planet's seasonal methane spikes. Scientists estimate periodic melting causes the ice to release the compound in gas form.

At first, scientists thought the methane originated inside Gale Crater.

"Our new Mars Express data, taken one day after Curiosity's recording, change the interpretation of where the methane originated from, especially when considering global atmospheric circulation patterns together with the local geology," Giuranna said in an ESA news release. "Based on geological evidence and the amount of methane that we measured, we think that the source is unlikely to be located within the crater."

The conclusions of the computer simulations aren't definitive, and there is still a lot to learn about Mars' methane. Scientists still aren't sure how methane is removed from the atmosphere and becomes trapped in permafrost.

But the latest findings suggest scientists are getting closer to explaining the methane that Mars Express first measured 15 years ago.

"Our results support the idea that methane release on Mars might be characterized by small, transient geological events rather than a constantly replenishing global presence," said Frank Daerden, researcher at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Astronomy in Brussels.

Scientists expect to gain new insights into the nature of Mars' methane and other trace gases from data collected by ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a probe with an instrument suite designed to survey Mars' atmospheric makeup.

[elcid1970]

Every taco truck is outdoors.

;^)

[Dutch Boy]

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[SunkenCiv]

small, transient geological events

Same as the water erosion. Thanks Red Badger.

• There Is Definitely Methane on Mars, Scientists Say. But Is It a Sign of Life?

  

  · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·

  Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

[SunkenCiv]

Thomas Gold keyword as of March 2012 (I had the file already):

• What If Oil and Natural Gas Are Renewable Resources?
• Unconventional Completion Technology Revives Old Oil Fields
• 300 million year old fossilized forest discovered under coal mine in China
• Methane Bubbling to Arctic Ocean Surface in Giant Plumes
• NASA Finds Hydrocarbons on Saturn's Moon Hyperion
• 'Worms from hell' unearth possibilities for extraterrestrial life
• Everything you've heard about fossil fuels may be wrong
• Scientists plan to drill all the way down to the Earth's mantle
• Hydrocarbons in the deep earth - (Renewable? Maybe..National Academy of Science weights in)
• Hydrocarbons Deep Within Earth: New Computational Study Reveals How
• Hydrocarbons Could Form Deep In the Earth From Methane, Not Animal Remains
• Hydrocarbons in the deep earth (abiogenic)
• Bacteria devoured methane gas from gulf oil spill, scientists say
• Life is found in deepest layer of Earth's crust
• Study: Petroleum-eating microbes significantly reduced gulf oil plume ( Deepwater Horizon oilspill )
• New microbe discovered eating oil spill in Gulf
• Hydrocarbons In The Deep Earth?
• WHOI scientists find ancient asphalt domes off California coast (Maltenes?)
• Debunking the Myth of Peak Oil - Why the Age of Cheap Oil is Far From Over
• Hidden Gas Source Could Speed Global Warming
• New research rejects 80-year theory of 'primordial soup' as the origin of life
• Much of the early methane rise can be attributed to the spreading of northern peatlands
• Abiotic Synthesis Of Methane: New Evidence Supports 19th-Century Idea On Formation Of Oil
• Scientists Find Black Gold Amidst Overlooked Data
• New evidence supports 19th century idea on formation of oil and gas
• Revolutionary discovery means world may not run out of crude
• Easier to find oil ( Abiogenic ? )
• Methane-derived hydrocarbons produced under upper-mantle conditions
• Fossil fuel: Now without the fossils-Just dig deeper, say boffins
• A Seismic Shift In Understanding How The Earth Got Its Gas
• Can Hydrocarbons Form in the Mantle Without Organic Matter?
• New research shows how oil gets stuck underground (Denmark)
• Methane-producing mineral discovered on Mars
• Half Of The Oil In The Ocean Bubbles Up Naturally From Seafloor
• Life found on Mars?
• BBC Audio: Dyson and Clarke (archive of BBC interviews with Freeman Dyson,Arthur C. Clarke & more!)
• Plumes of methane identified on Mars - Finding could influence choice of landing site for Mars...
• One is the loneliest number for mine-dwelling bacterium
• At 2.8 km down, a 1-of-a-kind microorganism lives all alone [descende, Audax viator ...]
• Rare Microorganism That Produces Hydrogen May Be Key To Tomorrow's Hydrogen Economy
• Meet the Intraterrestrials
• Scientists Document Bustling Community Far Below Ocean Floor
• Dinosaur killer may have struck oil
• Titan Has More Oil Than Earth
• Titan Has More Oil Than Earth
• Titan Has More Oil Than Earth
• Titan's surface organics surpass oil reserves on Earth
• BLACK-GOLD BLUES Discovery backs theory oil not 'fossil fuel'
• Deep-ocean vents are a source of oil and gas (evidence of abiogenic hydrocarbons)
• Lost City pumps life-essential chemicals at rates unseen at typical black smokers
• Shedding light on deep-sea thermal vents
• Oil-eating bacteria make light work of heavy fuel
• Massive deep-water oil find in Brazil challenges technology
• Rebel with a Cause: The Optimistic Scientist
• The Origins of Peak Oil Doomerism
• If hydrocarbons are renewable- then is "Peak Oil" a fraud?
• CNBC Live: Earth Oil Supplies 3x Previous Estimates
• Prospecting for Oil? Look In an Asteroid Crater
• Plenty of Oil --- Just Drill Deeper
• Peak oil theorists don't know Jack ( It Could Increase U.S. Reserves by 50% )
• Marine Methane Heats Things Up
• Time Before Time [speculative cosmology]
• Gas escaping from ocean floor may drive global warming
• Oil Is Well: The Shortage Is A Myth, And Not A New One
• Does Deep Earth Host Untapped Fuel?
• UC Riverside Researchers Identify Clay as Major Contributor to Oxygen that Enabled Early Animal Life
• Perspective: India's next big business? (Oil)
• 'Fossil fuel' theory takes hit with NASA finding
• At 30,000 feet down, where were the dinosaurs?
• Shaped from clay [origin of life]
• Methane on Mars: the plot thickens
• LINK LISTING - Space Propulsion Techniques and Technologies
• Hydrogen Production Method Could Bolster Fuel Supplies
• Fossil Fuels Made without Fossils
• About Coal: America's most abundant energy resource
• Abiotic Theory of Oil Formation
• Anything into Oil(solution to dependence on foregn oil?)
• Oil Without End?
• Early Water on Earth
• Research Finds Life 1000 Feet Beneath Ocean Floor
• Supplies of oil may be inexhaustible
• Oil Fields' Free Refill - More oil than we thought (maybe)
• The world has more oil not less
• Scientist stirs the cauldron: oil, he says, is renewable
• Oil Czar and ally

[SunkenCiv]

(his papers used to be online at Cornell, even after his death; glad I saved them to drive back then)

Life on other Planets
by Thomas Gold
May 1997

Highly oxidized iron is abundant on Mars, and very small-grained magnetite can then be expected to be one of the accumulated residues of microbial processes; so can iron sulfide and methane-derived carbonates. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are the large molecules that might remain in a rock that originally contained crude oil but then was exposed for millions of years to the high vacuum of space. All these substances have been found in the discovery meteorite, closely packaged to each other, and this by itself would make a strong case for the microbial interpretation. In addition, there are small objects seen under scanning electron microscopy that may well be fossils of microbes. While the last item by itself would not be conclusive evidence, the combination of this together with oil and the three residue products make a strong case for the microbial explanation. It is true that each step can occur without biological intervention, but the chance of finding by chance the evidence for all three solids in a small volume, together with hydrocarbons, seems to be very low. Many terrestrial oil and gas wells show just such an association (but an association with helium also, which the meteorite could not have transported through space).

[SunkenCiv]

Dang, in after the ping. ;^)