Reproducing Experiment in the Shock-Induced Removal of CO2 From the Atmosphere on the Early Mars

The evolution of the Mars is one of the most important problems on the environmental issues of terrestrial planets. The early Martian atmosphere was formed by degassing and it consisted thick CO2. Most of the CO2 must have been removed from the early Martian atmosphere in order to change to the present thin atmosphere. Heavy bombardment of planetesimals had been one of the important high energy processes on the primitive Mars. In this study, we experiment to reproduce the reaction between the early Martian atmosphere and the minerals in the high temperature condition caused by the shock-induced heating and discuss its effect of CO2 removal from the atmosphere. Reaction experiments were carried out with CO2 or CO2- H2O fluid at the pressure of 100MPa or 50MPa. A range of the temperature is 200-650°C and run duration is 7 days. Starting materials was the mixture of olivine, orthopyroxene, diopside, and plagioclase represented the main mineral phases of the early Mars. After the experiment, the reacted CO2 was weighed by CO2 mass remained in the experimental capsule. CO2 reactivity increased with decreasing temperature. If removed CO2 fixed as carbonate minerals in the run products, abundance of the carbonate minerals may be as much as 10% of the run products. Presence of H2O has no remarkable effect on CO2 reactivity. A Martian meteorite, ALH84001 includes approximately 1% of carbonate. Large-scale impact on the Martian surface brought shock-induced heating up to several hundred degrees C at several kilometers in depth. Accessory carbonate minerals in Martian rocks may be formed by reactions of CO2 atmosphere and brecciated rocks under craters. A layer of 1% carbonate-bearing rocks with 5km in thickness at Martian surface can settle 0.5MPa of CO2 (1MPa equivalent at the terrestrial gravity) from the Martian atmosphere. Carbonate formation by the shock-induced heating may have played a significant role in the evolution of the primitive Martian atmosphere.