Martian Carbonate Minerals

If you’re fascinated by Mars, here’s the short version: magnesium–iron carbonates are chemical time capsules. They form when CO₂-rich water reacts with rock, and they lock away clues about ancient atmosphere, water chemistry, and — maybe — preserved organics. Knowing where rovers have actually drilled […]

Have you ever found a hidden note in an old book and felt like you’d discovered someone’s secret? Finding iron-rich carbonates on Mars is a bit like that: they’re tiny chemical notes left behind by ancient environments. Iron-rich carbonates — minerals like siderite (iron carbonate) […]

Have you ever picked up a seashell and tried to read its lines like someone reading a diary? Jezero Crater is a bit like that seashell: every layer and mineral is a sentence in Mars’s ancient story. When geologists and astrobiologists look at Jezero, they’re […]