Sulfur‐induced greenhouse warming on early Mars

Abstract

Mineralogical, geological, geophysical, and isotopic data recently returned from Mars suggest that the delivery of sulfur gases to the atmosphere may have played a significant role in the planet's early evolution. Using the Gusev Crater basalt composition and a batch melting model, we obtain a high sulfur solubility, approximately 1400 ppm, in Martian mantle melts. We proceed to explore different scenarios for the pulsed degassing of sulfur volatiles associated with the emplacement of near‐surface dikes during the late Noachian or early Hesperian, when surface pressures are thought to be substantially higher than present. We investigate background Martian atmospheres of 50 and 500 mbar CO 2 with varying abundances of H 2 O and sulfur volatiles (H 2 S and SO 2 mixing ratios of 10−3 to 10−6). Results suggest that these sulfur volatile influxes, alone, could have been responsible for greenhouse warming up to 25 K above that caused by CO 2. Including additional water vapor feedback, this process could have raised the early surface temperature above the freezing point for brines and possibly allowed transient liquid water on the Martian surface. Each temperature rise was likely to have been short‐lived, however, due to brief residence times for sulfur volatiles in an optically thin atmosphere.