Inner planets articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Article |

    The subsurface of Mars could potentially have contained a vast microbial biosphere. An evaluation of the possibility of groundwater upwelling, which might provide clues to subsurface habitability, reveals evidence in the deep McLaughlin crater for clays and carbonates that probably formed in an alkaline, groundwater-fed lacustrine setting.

    • Joseph R. Michalski
    • , Javier Cuadros
    •  & Shawn P. Wright

  • News & Views |

    Thirty years ago, the spacecraft Pioneer Venus observed the peak and decline of sulphur dioxide levels above Venus's clouds. Similar observations by Venus Express reveal a surprisingly variable venusian atmosphere.

    • Larry W. Esposito

  • Letter |

    A pulse of sulphur dioxide in Venus’s upper atmosphere was observed by the Pioneer Venus spacecraft in the 1970s and 1980s and attributed to volcanism. Recent sulphur dioxide measurements from Venus Express indicate decadal-scale fluctuations in sulphur dioxide above Venus’s cloud tops in an atmosphere that is more dynamic than expected.

    • Emmanuel Marcq
    • , Jean-Loup Bertaux
    •  & Denis Belyaev

  • News & Views |

    Clay minerals on Mars have been interpreted as an indication for a warm, wet early climate. A new hypothesis proposes that the minerals instead formed during brief periods of magmatic degassing, diminishing the prospects for signs of life in these settings.

    • Brian Hynek

  • Article |

    Hydrous clay minerals detected on the ancient martian crust have been proposed to have formed by aqueous weathering on a warm, wet early Mars. However, analyses of terrestrial clay minerals and comparisons to Mars suggest that the Noachian clays could have alternatively formed by precipitation from magmatic fluids.

    • Alain Meunier
    • , Sabine Petit
    •  & Eric Ferrage

  • Letter |

    Phyllosilicate minerals are rare in the Noachian-aged crust of the northern lowlands of Mars, compared with the tropical highlands. Geochemical and climate modelling suggest that this dichotomy is consistent with the presence of a cold ocean fringed by cold-based glaciers.

    • Alberto G. Fairén
    • , Alfonso F. Davila
    •  & James F. Kasting

  • Article |

    Relative contributions to Earth’s total heat flux from the radioactive decay of isotopes versus primordial heat are debated. Measurements of geoneutrino particles emitted during radioactive decay in the Earth’s interior indicate that radiogenic isotopes contribute only about half of the total heat flux.

    • A. Gando
    • , Y. Gando
    •  & M. P. Decowski

  • Editorial |

    Nature Geoscience has joined Twitter. We share our take on exciting developments in the Earth and planetary sciences as they happen.

  • Letter |

    Extant or relict martian volcanic hydrothermal systems have been sought in the pursuit of evidence for habitable environments. Detection from orbit of hydrated silica deposits on the flanks of a volcanic cone in the martian Syrtis Major caldera complex suggests the possible preservation of a recent habitable microenvironment.

    • J. R. Skok
    • , J. F. Mustard
    •  & S. L. Murchie

  • News & Views |

    Evidence for the sedimentary carbonate rocks proposed to be prevalent on Mars has generally been lacking. Carbonate-bearing rocks found in the Leighton Crater may be associated with the formation of methane detected in the martian atmosphere.

    • Timothy D. Glotch

  • Letter |

    Mars may have once had a CO2-rich atmosphere, but carbonate rocks that could provide evidence for such conditions are sparse. Spectral analyses of rocks exposed from deep within an impact crater reveal that carbonate deposits may be extensive on Mars, but are buried under layers of younger volcanic rocks.

    • Joseph R. Michalski
    •  & Paul B. Niles

  • News & Views |

    The northern plains of Mars are thought to have harboured an ocean more than 3.6 billion years ago. Delta deposits and river-valley termini ring the proposed seabed and define an equipotential palaeoshoreline.

    • Alberto G. Fairén

  • Letter |

    The climate of early Mars could have supported a complex hydrological system. Analysis of ancient deltaic deposits and valley networks reveals the presence of a planet-wide equipotential surface in the northern lowlands, indicative of the existence of a vast ocean on Mars 3.5 billion years ago.

    • Gaetano Di Achille
    •  & Brian M. Hynek

  • Backstory |

    Vladimir Samarkin, Michael Madigan and colleagues travelled to Don Juan Pond in Antarctica, in an attempt to understand life on Mars. Instead, they discovered an unexpected link between the geosphere and atmosphere.

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