Magnetite authigenesis and the warming of early Mars

The Curiosity rover has documented lacustrine sediments at Gale Crater, but how liquid water became physically stable on the early Martian surface is a matter of significant debate. To constrain the composition of the early Martian atmosphere during sediment deposition, we experimentally investigated the nucleation and growth kinetics of authigenic Fe-minerals in Gale Crater mudstones. Experiments show that pH variations within anoxic basaltic waters trigger a series of mineral transformations that rapidly generate magnetite and H₂(aq). Magnetite continues to form through this mechanism despite high P_CO2 and supersaturation with respect to Fe-carbonate minerals. Reactive transport simulations that incorporate these experimental data show that groundwater infiltration into a lake equilibrated with a CO₂-rich atmosphere can trigger the production of both magnetite and H₂(aq) in the mudstones. H₂(aq), generated at concentrations that would readily exsolve from solution, is capable of increasing annual mean surface temperatures above freezing in CO₂-dominated atmospheres. We therefore suggest that magnetite authigenesis could have provided a short-term feedback for stabilizing liquid water, as well as a principal feedstock for biologically relevant chemical reactions, at the early Martian surface.