Methane release and the carbon cycle on Mars

Details Methane release and the carbon cycle on Mars Methane release and the carbon cycle on Mars

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p11a1319c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P11A-1319

Mathematics

Logic

[0325] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Evolution Of The Atmosphere, [0343] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Planetary Atmospheres, [1030] Geochemistry / Geochemical Cycles, [1060] Geochemistry / Planetary Geochemistry

Scientific paper

Assuming that the present release rate of methane to the Martian atmosphere is due to serpentinization in the deep subsurface, we suggest that the cryosphere could act as a buffer storing under the form of small CH4 clathrate particles the CH4 delivered from below by hydrothermal fluids and progressively releasing it to the atmosphere at the top. From an extrapolation of the present CH4 release rate back to the past, we calculate that up to several hundred millibars (~200-2000 mbar) of CO2, resulting from the oxidation of the released CH4, in addition to the volcanic supply (~400 mbar), should have accumulated in the atmosphere in the absence of a CO2 sink. We reassess the capability of escape to have removed CO2 from the atmosphere by C escape, and show that it is not significant. We suggest that atmospheric carbon is recycled to the crust through an active subsurface hydrological system, and precipitates as carbonates within the crust (Fig. 1). During episodic periods of magmatic activity, these carbonates are decomposed to CO2 dissolved in running water, and CO2 can react with H2 formed by serpentinization to build CH4. CH4 is then buffered in the subsurface cryosphere, above the water table, and finally released to the atmosphere, before being recycled to the subsurface hydrological system, and converted back to carbonates. We propose a typical evolution curve of the CO2 pressure since the late Noachian based on our hypothesis (Fig. 2). Fig. 1 : Schematic view of carbonate precipitation through mixing of hot hydrothermal fluids and cold water in subsurface water sheets.
Fig. 2 : Evolutions of the atmospheric CO2 pressure with time (left vertical scale) and of the carbonate content of the crust in units of a global equivalent layer of carbonate (right vertical scale). The thick dotted line represents the hydrothermal flux of H2, as scaled on volcanic extrusion rates, in arbitrary units.

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