4 ms·
> yay, likelihood that we are martians just went up a few basis points I bet there's some non-life explanation, probably having to do with weird chemistry that
by tivert 3y ago
> yay, likelihood that we are martians just went up a few basis points
I bet there's some non-life explanation, probably having to do with weird chemistry that happens on Mars over long periods, but is not so significant on Earth.
The article says the Earth-chemistry that creates these minerals involves the oxygen in the atmosphere, but it doesn't seem plausible to me that Mars's atmosphere was ever oxygenated. It took billions of years for the Earth's atmosphere to become oxygenated, and it sounds like Mars lost most of its atmosphere fairly quickly.
- throwway120385 3y agoSomeone else brought up that superoxygenator salts form in the upper layers of the soil due to the high UV radiation on the surface. It's possible the oxidation here is due to those superoxygenators but the original manganese is due to the ancient lake. So basically manganese is embedded in the rock while there's a lake, then the lake dries up as the atmosphere disappears. And finally the UV gets strong enough to create oxidizers in the soil which react with the manganese.