Salty Environments: The importance of evaporites and brine environments as habitats and preservers of biosignatures
Whitepaper #240 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: field studies; habitability and water; Mars
by Scott Perl, Solmaz Adeli, Chhandak Basu, Bonnie K. Baxter, Jeff Bowman, Eric Boyd, Morgan Cable, Aaron J. Celestian, Charles S. Cockell, Frank A. Corsetti, Kate L. Craft, Aaron Engelhart, Alberto G. Fairen, Suniti Karunatillake, Kennda Lynch, Sally Potter-McIntyre, Frances Rivera-Hernandez, Mark Schneegurt, Susanne Schwenzer, Svetlana Shkolyar, Bethany Theiling, Brian Wade, and Jon Zaloumis
Published onMar 18, 2021
Salty Environments: The importance of evaporites and brine environments as habitats and preservers of biosignatures
The habitability of ancient Mars is directly related to the presence of late Noachian surface waters and their stability over geologic time. Evaporite minerals can capture and entomb organic matter, biological compounds, and intact cells within their intercrystalline and intracrystalline structure because they precipitate relatively quickly.
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