Rock-Ingredient Stew Found In Mars Support Life

NASA scientists and researchers are now in the process of searching and finding evidence of how ancient lakes and wet undergrounds in Mars changed to create a more diverse chemical environment that is favorable for microbial life.

According to NASA, among the ingredients which are abundant are hematite, clay minerals, and boron. These elements are found in the layers farther uphill than with the lower, older layers. Scientists and researchers are now discussing what these ingredients and other variations tell about under which sediments were primarily deposited. Also, they talked about how the groundwater moves through the accumulated layers altered and transported elements.

The groundwater movement effects are considered as the most evident in mineral veins. So basically, the veins have formed where the cracks in the layers were filled with chemicals which had been dissolved in groundwater.

The water with the dissolved contents interacts with the rock matrix that surrounds the veins resulting for the chemistry of both in the rock and in the water to alter.

"There is so much variability in the composition at different elevations, we've hit the jackpot," said John Grotzinger of Caltech in Pasadena, California.

According to Mars Exploration website, John Grotzinger together with the other members of Curiosity's Science team presented an update mission about the theory. They were impressed with the complexity of the lake environments on the planet when clay-bearing sediments were deposited and as well as the complex nature of the groundwater interactions after the sediments were buried.

Grotzinger stressed that the elements get rearranged resulting for the new minerals to form and old ones to dissolve. Electrons also get redistributed. This reaction on earth supports life.

"Variations in these minerals and elements indicate a dynamic system. They interact with groundwater as well as surface water. The boron, hematite, and clay minerals underline the mobility of elements and electrons, and that is good for life," Grotzinger said.