Abstract
The presence of valleys on ancient terrains of Mars suggests that liquid water flowed on the martian surface 3.8 Gyr ago or before. The above-freezing temperatures required to explain valley formation could have been transient, in response to the frequent large meteorite impacts on early Mars, or they could have been caused by long-lived greenhouse warming. Climate models that consider only the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and water have been unable to recreate warm surface conditions, given the lower solar luminosity at that time. Here we use a one-dimensional climate model to demonstrate that an atmosphere containing 1.3–4 bar of CO2 and water, in addition to 5–20% H2, could have raised the mean surface temperature of early Mars above the freezing point of water. Vigorous volcanic outgassing from a highly reduced early martian mantle is expected to provide sufficient atmospheric H2 and CO2—the latter from the photochemical oxidation of outgassed CH4 and CO—to form a CO2 and H2 greenhouse. Such a dense early martian atmosphere is consistent with independent estimates of surface pressure based on cratering data.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Carr, M. H. The martian drainage system and the origin of valley networks and fretted channels. J. Geophys. Res. 100, 7479–7507 (1995).
Jakosky, B. M., Haberle, R. M. & Arvidson, R. E. The changing picture of volatiles and climate on Mars. Science 310, 1439–1440 (2005).
Segura, T. L., Toon, O. B., Colaprete, A. & Zahnle, K. Environmental effects of large impacts on Mars. Science 298, 1977–1980 (2002).
Segura, T. L., Toon, O. B. & Colaprete, A. Modeling the environmental effects of moderate-sized impacts on Mars. J. Geophys. Res. 113, E11007 (2008).
Segura, T. L., McKay, C. P. & Toon, O. B. An impact-induced, stable, runaway climate on Mars. Icarus 220, 144–148 (2012).
Pollack, J. B., Kasting, J. F., Richardson, S. M. & Poliakoff, K. The case for a wet, warm climate on early Mars. Icarus 71, 203–224 (1987).
Johnson, S. S., Mischna, M. A., Grove, T. L. & Zuber, M. T. Sulfur-induced greenhouse warming on early Mars. J. Geophys. Res. 113, E08005 (2008).
Tian, F. et al. Photochemical and climate consequences of sulfur outgassing on early Mars. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 295, 412–418 (2010).
Mischna, M., Baker, V., Milliken, R., Richardson, M. & Lee, C. Effects of obliquity and water vapor/trace gas greenhouses in the early Martian climate. J. Geophys. Res. 118, 1–17 (2013).
Kasting, J. F. CO2 condensation and the climate of early Mars. Icarus 94, 1–13 (1991).
Wordsworth, R., Forget, F. & Eymet, V. Infrared collision-induced and far-line absorption in dense CO2 atmospheres. Icarus 210, 992–997 (2010).
Forget, F. & Pierrehumbert, R. T. Warming early Mars with carbon dioxide clouds that scatter infrared radiation. Science 278, 1273–1276 (1997).
Wordsworth, R., Forget, F., Millour, E., Head, J. W. & Madeleine, J-B. Charnay, B. Global modelling of the early Martian climate under a denser CO2 atmosphere: Water cycle and ice evolution. Icarus 222, 1–19 (2013).
Forget, F. et al. 3D modelling of the early martian climate under a denser CO2 atmosphere: Temperatures and CO2 ice clouds. Icarus 222, 81–99 (2013).
Gough, D. O. Solar interior structure and luminosity variations. Sol. Phys. 74, 21–34 (1981).
Hynek, B. M. & Phillips, R. J. New data reveal mature, integrated drainage systems on Mars indicative of past precipitation. Geology 31, 757–760 (2003).
Barnhart, C. J., Howard, A. D. & Moore, J. M. Long-term precipitation and late-stage valley network formation: Landform simulations of Parana Basin, Mars. J. Geophys. Res. 114, E01003 (2009).
Hoke, M. R. T., Hynek, B. M. & Tucker, G. E. Formation timescales of large Martian valley networks. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 312, 1–12 (2011).
Stevenson, D. J. Life-sustaining planets in interstellar space? Nature 400, 32–32 (1999).
Pierrehumbert, R. & Gaidos, E. Hydrogen greenhouse planets beyond the habitable zone. Astrophys. J. Lett. 734, L13 (2011).
Wordsworth, R. & Pierrehumbert, R. Hydrogen–nitrogen greenhouse warming in Earth’s early atmosphere. Science 339, 64–67 (2013).
Kasting, J. F. How was early Earth kept warm? Science 339, 44–45 (2013).
Fox, J. L. The production and escape of nitrogen atoms on Mars. J. Geophys. Res. 98, 3297–3310 (1993).
Borysow, A. & Frommhold, L. Theoretical collision-induced rototranslational absorption-spectra for modeling titans atmosphere— H2–N2 pairs. Astrophys. J. 303, 495–510 (1986).
Haqq-Misra, J. D., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Kasting, P. J. & Kasting, J. F. A revised, hazy methane greenhouse for the early Earth. Astrobiology 8, 1127–1137 (2008).
Urata, R. A. & Toon, O. B. Simulations of the martian hydrologic cycle with a general circulation model: Implications for the ancient martian climate. Icarus 226, 229–250 (2013).
Kite, E., Williams, J-P., Lucis, A. & Aharonson, O. Constraints on early Mars atmospheric pressure from small ancient craters. American Geophysical Union Conf.http://gps.caltech.edu/~kite/doc/Kite_et_al_AGU_2012.pdf (2012).
Wolf, E. T. & Toon, O. B. Hospitable Archean climates simulated by a general circulation model. Astrobiology 13, 656–673 (2013).
Holland, H. D. The Chemical Evolution of the Atmosphere and Oceans (Princeton Univ. Press, 1984) Table 2.6.
Jarrard, R. D. Subduction fluxes of water, carbon dioxide, chlorine and potassium. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 4, 8905 (2003).
Frost, B. R. in Oxide Minerals: Petrologic and Magmatic Significance Vol. 25 (ed. Lindsley, D. H.) 1–9 (Mineral. Soc. Amer., BookCrafters, 1991).
Holland, H. D. Why the atmosphere became oxygenated: A proposal. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 73, 5241–5255 (2009).
Gaillard, F. & Scaillet, B. The sulfur content of volcanic gases on Mars. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 279, 34–43 (2009).
Montesi, L. G. J. & Zuber, M. T. Clues to the lithospheric structure of Mars from wrinkle ridge sets and localization instability. J. Geophys. Res. 108, 5048 (2003).
Stanley, B. D., Hirschmann, M. M. & Withers, A. C. CO2 solubility in Martian basalts and Martian atmospheric evolution. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 75, 5987–6003 (2011).
Grott, M., Morschhauser, A., Breuer, D. & Hauber, E. Volcanic outgassing of CO2 and H2O on Mars. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 308, 391–400 (2011).
Tuff, J., Wade, J. & Wood, B. J. Volcanism on Mars controlled by early oxidation of the upper mantle. Nature 498, 342–345 (2013).
Walker, J. C. G. Evolution of the Atmosphere (Macmillan, 1977).
Tian, F., Kasting, J. F., Liu, H. L. & Roble, R. G. Hydrodynamic planetary thermosphere model: 1. Response of the Earth’s thermosphere to extreme solar EUV conditions and the significance of adiabatic cooling. J. Geophys. Res. 113, E05008 (2008).
Stone, J. M. & Proga, D. Anisotropic winds from close-in extrasolar planets. Astrophys. J. 694, 205–213 (2009).
Werner, S. C. The early martian evolution—Constraints from basin formation ages. Icarus 195, 45–60 (2008).
Walker, J. C. G., Hays, P. B. & Kasting, J. F. A negative feedback mechanism for the long-term stabilization of Earth’s surface temperature. J. Geophys. Res. 86, 9776–9782 (1981).
Bandfield, J. L., Glotch, T. D. & Christensen, P. R. Spectroscopic identification of carbonate minerals in the martian dust. Science 301, 1084–1087 (2003).
Lammer, H. et al. Outgassing history and escape of the martian atmosphere and water inventory. Space Sci. Rev. 174, 113–154 (2013).
Tian, F., Kasting, J. F. & Solomon, S. C. Thermal escape of carbon from the early Martian atmosphere. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L02205 (2009).
Terada, N. et al. Atmosphere and water loss from early Mars under extreme solar wind and extreme ultraviolet conditions. Astrobiology 9, 55–70 (2009).
Ribas, I., Guinan, E. F., Gudel, M. & Audard, M. Evolution of the solar activity over time and effects on planetary atmospheres. I. High-energy irradiances (1–1700 angstrom). Astrophys. J. 622, 680–694 (2005).
Phillips, R. J. et al. Ancient geodynamics and global-scale hydrology on Mars. Science 291, 2587–2591 (2001).
Wetzel, D. T., Rutherford, M. J., Jacobsen, S. D., Hauri, E. H. & Saal, A. E. Degassing of reduced carbon from planetary basalts. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 8010–8013 (2013).
Zahnle, K., Haberle, R. M., Catling, D. C. & Kasting, J. F.. Photochemical instability of the ancient Martian atmosphere. J. Geophys. Res. 113, E11004 (2008).
Acknowledgements
This paper benefited from reviews by B. Toon and R. Wordsworth. Support for this work came from the NASA Exobiology Program and the NASA Astrobiology Institute.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
R.M.R. and R.K. generated H2O and CO2 line-by-line cross-sections. R.M.R. generated CH4 line-by-line cross-sections with guidance from R.F. R.M.R. carried out most of the background research and climate model updates. R.M.R. and R.K. debugged the climate model. R.M.R. carried out the computations and wrote most of the Supplementary Information. T.D.R. worked with R.M.R. in providing flux comparisons with SMART; M.E.Z. carried out numerical calculations of hydrodynamic escape rates. J.F.K. provided overall guidance and wrote much of the main text. All authors contributed to proofreading and making comments on the paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information (PDF 616 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ramirez, R., Kopparapu, R., Zugger, M. et al. Warming early Mars with CO2 and H2. Nature Geosci 7, 59–63 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2000
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2000
This article is cited by
-
Atmospheric formaldehyde production on early Mars leading to a potential formation of bio-important molecules
Scientific Reports (2024)
-
Geological evidence for multiple climate transitions on Early Mars
Nature Geoscience (2024)
-
Magma Ocean, Water, and the Early Atmosphere of Venus
Space Science Reviews (2023)
-
The Mars system revealed by the Martian Moons eXploration mission
Earth, Planets and Space (2022)
-
Chemical weathering over hundreds of millions of years of greenhouse conditions on Mars
Communications Earth & Environment (2022)