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The Martian subsurface as a potential window into the origin of life

Nature Geoscience volume 11, pages 21–26 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Few traces of Earth’s geologic record are preserved from the time of life’s emergence, over 3,800 million years ago. Consequently, what little we understand about abiogenesis — the origin of life on Earth — is based primarily on laboratory experiments and theory. The best geological lens for understanding early Earth might actually come from Mars, a planet with a crust that’s overall far more ancient than our own. On Earth, surface sedimentary environments are thought to best preserve evidence of ancient life, but this is mostly because our planet has been dominated by high photosynthetic biomass production at the surface for the last ~2,500 million years or more. By the time oxygenic photosynthesis evolved on Earth, Mars had been a hyperarid, frozen desert with a surface bombarded by high-energy solar and cosmic radiation for more than a billion years, and as a result, photosynthetic surface life may never have occurred on Mars. Therefore, one must question whether searching for evidence of life in Martian surface sediments is the best strategy. This Perspective explores the possibility that the abundant hydrothermal environments on Mars might provide more valuable insights into life’s origins.

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Fig. 1: A comparison of the age of planetary crust.
Fig. 2: A comparison of key events in the histories of the Earth and Mars.

NASA.

Fig. 3: Hydrothermal and exhumed, altered subsurface deposits on Mars.
Fig. 4: A comparison of the average porosity and thermal gradients of the crusts of Earth and Mars.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge NASA for sponsoring open workshops surrounding the landing site selection for Mars rovers, and specifically the upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission. This work benefited from discussion during landing site selection meetings, as well as the NASA-sponsored conference on Biosignature Preservation and Detection in Mars Analog Environments held in Lake Tahoe in May of 2016 and the Rock Hosted Life Workshop held in February 2017 at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences and Laboratory for Space Research, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China

    Joseph R. Michalski

  2. Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Tullis C. Onstott

  3. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Stephen J. Mojzsis

  4. Collaborative for Research in Origins (CRiO), The John Templeton Foundation - FfAME Origins Program, Boulder, CO, USA

    Stephen J. Mojzsis

  5. Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Stephen J. Mojzsis

  6. Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    John Mustard

  7. Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Queenie H. S. Chan & Paul B. Niles

  8. Department of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Sarah Stewart Johnson

  9. Science, Technology, and International Affairs Program, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Sarah Stewart Johnson

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Michalski, J.R., Onstott, T.C., Mojzsis, S.J. et al. The Martian subsurface as a potential window into the origin of life. Nature Geosci 11, 21–26 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-017-0015-2

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