A new study led by Curtin University has found the oldest direct evidence of ancient hot water activity on Mars, showing that the planet may have been habitable at some point in its past. The study analyzed a 4.45 billion-year-old zircon grain from the famous Martian meteorite NWA7034, also known as Black Beauty, and found geochemical “fingerprints” of water-rich fluids.

Study co-author Dr. Aaron Cavosi said the discovery opens new avenues for understanding the planet’s past habitability, as well as ancient Martian hydrothermal systems associated with magmatism.

“We used nanoscale geochemistry to detect essential evidence of hot water on Mars 4.45 billion years ago,” Dr Cavosi said. “Hydrothermal systems were important for the development of life on Earth, and our findings show that Mars also had water, an important component in a habitable environment, throughout its earliest crustal history.

“Through nanoscale imaging and spectroscopy, the team determined the composition of elements in this unique zircon, including iron, aluminium, yttrium and sodium. These elements were added when the zircon formed 4.45 billion years ago, indicating that water was present during the early magmatic activity of Mars.” “

Dr Cavosi said the study showed that water was present during the early Prenocian period, about 4.1 billion years ago, even though the Martian crust was heavily impacted by meteorites that caused major surface changes.

“Curtin’s study of the same zircon grain in 2022 showed that it was ‘shocked’ by a meteorite impact, marking it as the first and only zircon known to have been shocked from Mars,” Dr Cavosi said. he said.

“This new study takes us a step further in our understanding of early Mars by revealing clear signatures of water-rich fluids since grain formation and providing geochemical signatures of water in the oldest known Martian crust.”

Lead author Dr. from the University of Lausanne. Jack Gillespie was a research fellow in the Curtin School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the time of the study, which was co-authored by researchers from Curtin’s John de Latter Center for Space Science and Technology. Adelaide Center and University. The findings were published in the journal Science Developments.