¹Tominaga, Takahiro,²Yamaguchi, Naoya,²Sawahata, Hikaru,²Ishii, Fumiyuki
Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 62, SD1019 Link to Article [DOI 10.35848/1347-4065/acaca6]
¹Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa, 920-1192, Japan
²Nanomaterials Research Institute (NanoMaRi), Kanazawa University, Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa, 920-1192, Japan

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¹Nascimento-Dias, Bruno Leonardo,²Alvarenga, Maria Clara Ferreira,³Da Conceição Ben-To, Carolina,¹Zucolotto, Maria Elizabeth
Boletim Paranaense de Geosciencias 80, 212-225 Open Access Link to Article [DOI 10.5380/GEO.V80I2.88719]
¹Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro-UFRJ, Museu Nacional. Quinta da Boa Vista -São Cristóvão, RJ, Rio de Janeiro, 20940-040, Brazil
²Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro UFRJ, Observatório do Valongo, Ladeira do Pedro Antônio 43 – Centro RJ, Rio de Janeiro, 20080-090, Brazil
³Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro UFRJ, Instituto de Geociências, Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, 274 – Cidade Universitária – Ilha do Fundão RJ, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-916, Brazil

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¹Dai W.,¹ F.,¹Fang L.,¹Siebert J.
Geochemical Research Letters 24, 33-37 Open Access Link to Article [DOI 10.7185/geochemlet.2302]
¹Universite Paris Cité, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS, 1 rue Jussieu, Paris, 75005, France

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¹Galuskin, Evgeny,¹Galuskina, Irina O.,²Kamenetsky, Vadim,³Vapnik, Yevgeny,⁴Kusz, Joachim,¹Zieliński, Grzegorz
Lithosphere (in Press) Open Access Link to Article [DOI 10.2113/2022/8127747]
¹Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Poland
²Institute of Experimental Mineralogy RAS, Chernogolovka, 142432, Russian Federation
³Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 653, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel
⁴Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Silesia, ul. 75. Pułku Piechoty 1, Chorzów, 41-500, Poland
⁵Polish Geological Institute-National Research Institute, Rakowiecka 4, Warsaw, 00-975, Poland

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¹Yuan, Jiangyan,¹Huang, Hao,^1,2Chen, Yi,³Yang, Wei,³Tian, Hengci,³Zhang, Di,³Zhang, Huijuan
ACS Earth and Space Chemistry 7, 370 – 378 Link to Article [DOI10.1021/acsearthspacechem.2c00260]
¹State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China
²College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
³Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

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¹Camille R. Butkus,²Alexandra O. Warren,²Edwin S. Kite,^3,4Santiago Torres,^3,4Smadar Naoz,⁵Jennifer B. Glass
Icarus (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115580]
¹School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
²Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
³Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
⁴Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
⁵School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
Copyright Elsevier

Methane is a promising gaseous biosignature on rocky exoplanets, given a suitable context. Establishing the robustness of methane biosignatures on rocky exoplanets requires assessing potential “false positive” production pathways that could yield large fluxes of methane of abiotic origin. Here we modeled the flux of abiotic methane production from graphite hydrogenation on the surface of Mercury, where a relatively carbon-rich crust and bombardment by solar protons might favor this reaction. We calculated negligible methane flux from this abiotic reaction compared to biological methane flux on Earth. Graphite hydrogenation would only be expected to yield significant methane fluxes on exoplanets with high temperatures and ion fluxes that would preclude habitability for life as we know it. Thus, graphite hydrogenation by stellar wind can likely be ruled out as a potential “false positive” methane biosignature source.

¹Dominik Talla,¹Gerald Giester,¹Manfred Wildner
Icarus (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115583]
¹Institut für Mineralogie und Kristallographie, Universität Wien, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1090 Wien, Austria
Copyright Elsevier

The presence and importance of sulfates in our solar system have become common knowledge among the dedicated scientific community, as well as their crucial role in governing the water budget of planets such as Mars. The formation of subsurface oceans and cryovolcanism on icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn owe their existence to melting equilibria influenced by sulfate hydrates in the deeper parts of these celestial bodies. In such a setting, it cannot be ruled out that lower-hydrated sulfates including kieserite, MgSO4·H2O, are also present, given their stability under geologic pressures relevant even down to the lower mantle of the icy satellites. With regard to the composition of the water-soluble fraction in C1 and C2 chondritic meteorites presumed to correspond to that of the rocky cores of the Jovian moons, local kieserite may contain significant amounts of Mn in addition to Ni (and also some Fe). Minor Mn contents are probable even in kieserite occurring on the surface of Mars. Substantial lattice parameter changes and spectral band shifts between kieserite and its isostructural Mn-analogue szmikite, MnSO4·H2O, are well known, nevertheless neither the existence of a potential Mgsingle bondMn solid solution series nor its crystal chemical and spectroscopic behavior has yet been investigated.

This work provides the first evidence for such a continuous solid solution, describes its structural properties, and gives a detailed insight into the position changes of prominent bands in FTIR- and Raman spectra of synthetic samples, as the Mn/Mg ratio increases, with the measurement having been performed both at ambient and low temperatures relevant for Mars and the icy satellites. It reveals that contents of Mn do not cause any significant shift in the H2O stretching vibrational bands, yet influence the position of sulfate-related vibrations much in the same way as the incorporation of other relevant transition metal cations, such as Ni. The contrasting behavior of the ν3 and ν1 stretching vibrations of the H2O molecule in case of Mn- (no shift) and Ni-incorporation (significant shift to lower wavenumber) along with their comparable influence on the position of sulfate bands allow to deduce the chemical composition of kieserite in a ternary Mg–Mn–Ni system based on spectroscopic remote sensing or in situ data from celestial bodies. The assessment of chemical composition from vibrational spectra is facilitated by the observed Vegard-type behavior, where lattice parameters as well as the spectral band positions change along linear trends with increasing substitution of Mg, regardless if by Mn, Fe, or Ni. The observed shift of mainly the H2O stretching vibrations to lower wavenumber values as temperature decreases (in contrast to the bands related to the sulfate group) match thermal behavior observed in other binary solid solutions of sulfate monohydrate phases isostructural with kieserite.

^1,2,3C.K. Shearer,^4,5,6D.P. Moriarty,¹S.B. Simon,⁴N. Petro,^1,2J.J. Papike
Journal Geophysical Research (Planets) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JE007409]
¹Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131 United States
²Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131 United States
³Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, 77058 United States
⁴NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771 United States
⁵University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742 United States
⁶Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, College Park, MD, 20742 United States
Published by arrangement with Jon Wiley & Sons

Remote sensing observations have been interpreted to indicate that the Crisium basin-forming event excavated deep crust and upper mantle. Samples from the highlands adjacent to the Crisium basin returned by Luna 20 (L-20) bring a unique perspective for evaluating this concept. The magmatic lithologies returned from the noritic Hilly and Furrowed Terrain (nHFT) by L-20 are coarse-grained feldspar (>300 µm) with inclusions of pyroxene, and a finer-grained norites, troctolites, spinel troctolites, and gabbros (<100 µm). These two suites represent ferroan anorthosites (FANs) and the Mg-suite, respectively. There is limited evidence for mantle or deep crustal material within the nHFT samples. Ultramafic rocks such as dunites and orthopyroxenites are absent, and Mg-rich olivine- and orthopyroxene-bearing-assemblages are derived from magmatic rocks emplaced in the shallow crust. These lithic fragments represent pre-Crisium episodes of magmatism and lunar magma ocean products. The lack of deep lithologies at the L-20 site seems contradictory to excavation models for Crisium. Mineralogical-chemical differences suggest a higher FAN component in the rim and that this represents FANs excavated from the deep lunar crust. If it exists, the Mg-rich olivine previously identified within the Crisium rim is most likely related to deep, complementary versions of the Mg-suite rocks from L-20. The material associated with the Crisium basin is not derived from the lunar mantle but represents crustal lithologies from the shallow to deep crust, a substantial mantle component may have been incorporated into the Crisium basin impact melt sheet, or that our “Earth-analog” for the lunar upper mantle is incorrect.

¹Huanxin Liu,²Richard D. Ash,³Yan Luo,³D. Graham Pearson,¹Jingao Liu
Earth and Planetary Science Letters 612, 118162 Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2023.118162]
¹State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
²Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
³Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada
Copyright Elsevier

Metal phases in primitive chondrites contain important information for understanding early Solar System processes. Northwest Africa (NWA) 12273 is an ungrouped chondrite and, due to its preternatural high modal abundance of metal grains (>60%), provides a unique perspective on the formation and evolution of primitive planetesimals. To investigate the formation of metal phases in early solar system materials we report detailed petrography, siderophile geochemistry and Hf-W isotope geochronology for NWA 12273. The primitive textures and heterogeneous mineral chemistry of chondrules, as well as siderophile element compositions of Ni-rich metal, all indicate an affinity of NWA 12273 to unequilibrated (type 3.8) ordinary chondrites that experienced limited thermal metamorphism. Modeling shows that crucial inter-element fractionations among refractory siderophile elements for kamacite in NWA 12273, were most likely caused by solid metal-liquid metal partitioning, for example during partial melting of Fe-Ni metal containing ∼3.9 wt.% of S. Analysis of the metal fractions within NWA 12273 gives a Hf-W model age of ∼2.4 Ma after CAI formation (), older than metal formation in most of H chondrites and IIE irons. In comparison with published data for chondrites and ‘non-magmatic’ iron meteorites, siderophile element data suggest that the metal phases in NWA 12273 may have originated from similar precursor materials and/or accreted in adjacent nebular locations to IIE irons and H chondrites. These primary planetesimals experienced impact-related evaporation and mixing followed by rebuilding of the secondary body. This scenario is consistent with that proposed for IIE and other silicate-bearing iron meteorites, indicating that the building blocks of some chondrite parent bodies were not entirely primitive (undifferentiated) materials.

¹M.S.Rice et al. (>10)
Journal of Geophysical Research (Planets)(in Press) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JE007548]
¹Western Washington Univ, Bellingham, WA, United States
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

NASA’s Mars-2020 Perseverance rover spent its first year in Jezero crater studying the mafic lava flows of the Máaz formation and the ultramafic cumulates of the Séítah formation, both of which have undergone minor alteration and are variably covered by coatings, dust and/or soil deposits. Documenting the rock and soil characteristics across the crater floor is critical for establishing the geologic context of Perseverance’s cached samples – which will eventually be returned to Earth – and for interpreting the deposition and modification of the Máaz and Séítah formations. Mastcam-Z, a pair of multispectral, stereoscopic zoom-lens cameras, provides broadband red/green/blue and narrowband visible to near-infrared images (VNIR, 440-1020 nm). From multipsectral observations from sols 0-380, we compiled a database of ∼2400 representative Mastcam-Z spectra. We analyzed principal components, spectral parameters and laboratory spectra of pure minerals and natural rock surfaces to interpret the spectral diversity of rocks and soils. We define eight spectral classes of rocks: Dusty, Hematite-like, Coated, Low-Ca Pyroxene-like, Olivine-like, Weathered Olivine-like, Fe-rich Pyroxene-like, and Dark Oxide-like. The variability of soil spectra in the Jezero crater floor is controlled primarily by the amount of dust and indicates a largely consistent soil mineralogy across the traverse, with the exception of the area disturbed by the landing event. In comparison to rock spectra from the Curiosity rover’s Mastcam instrument in Gale crater, rocks on the Jezero crater floor are generally less spectrally diverse, but the Olivine-like rocks within the Séítah formation represent new spectral classes in Mars surface exploration.