Mars once lost its atmosphere. Scientists now believe they may have found it

Mars once was a vibrant planet with a thick atmosphere and water bodies billions of years ago. However, now it is a cold and dry desert and with the thick atmosphere no more in sight.

While hunting for this lost atmosphere, two MIT geologists believe that most likely it has been hiding in the clay-covered crust of Mars.

According to the study, Martian clay can store nearly 80 per cent of the initial atmosphere on the planet.

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“Around 3.5 billion years ago, the water dried up, and the air, once heavy with carbon dioxide, dramatically thinned, leaving only the wisp of an atmosphere that clings to the planet today,” stated the researchers.

How did the atmosphere of Mars get trapped?

As per the researchers, ancient water which trickled through the rocks of Mars may have started a series of chemical reactions and led to the conversion of CO2 into methane, which was eventually trapped in the clay of the planet for billions of years.

This process shares similarities with the processes which take place in some regions on Earth.

The team looked into the rock-gas interactions on Earth to understand similar processes which occur on Mars.

“Based on our findings on Earth, we show that similar processes likely operated on Mars, and that copious amounts of atmospheric CO2 could have transformed to methane and been sequestered in clays,” said Oliver Jagoutz, who is the study author and professor of geology at MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

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"We know this process happens, and it is well-documented on Earth. And these rocks and clays exist on Mars. So, we wanted to try and connect the dots," Jagoutz said.

Because the tectonic activity on Mars is not similar to that on Earth, the team tried to understand the origin of the clays on Mars.

The team, in their previous research, said that smectites are able to store carbon for “billions of years”.

“These smectite clays have so much capacity to store carbon. So then we used existing knowledge of how these minerals are stored in clays on Earth, and extrapolated to say: if the Martian surface has this much clay in it, how much methane can you store in those clays?” said Dr Murray.

(With inputs from agencies)