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Methane bursts as a trigger for intermittent lake-forming climates on post-Noachian Mars

Nature Geoscience volume 10, pages 737–740 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Lakes existed on Mars later than 3.6 billion years ago, according to sedimentary evidence for deltaic deposition. The observed fluviolacustrine deposits suggest that individual lake-forming climates persisted for at least several thousand years (assuming dilute flow). But the lake watersheds’ little-weathered soils indicate a largely dry climate history, with intermittent runoff events. Here we show that these observational constraints, although inconsistent with many previously proposed triggers for lake-forming climates, are consistent with a methane burst scenario. In this scenario, chaotic transitions in mean obliquity drive latitudinal shifts in temperature and ice loading that destabilize methane clathrate. Using numerical simulations, we find that outgassed methane can build up to atmospheric levels sufficient for lake-forming climates, if methane clathrate initially occupies more than 4% of the total volume in which it is thermodynamically stable. Such occupancy fractions are consistent with methane production by water–rock reactions due to hydrothermal circulation on early Mars. We further estimate that photochemical destruction of atmospheric methane curtails the duration of individual lake-forming climates to less than a million years, consistent with observations. We conclude that methane bursts represent a potential pathway for intermittent excursions to a warm, wet climate state on early Mars.

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Figure 1: Geologic constraints on the duration and shutdown time of lake-forming climates.
Figure 2: Range of obliquity trajectories possible for Mars, and their probable climate effects.
Figure 3: Triggering of a CH4-enabled lake-forming climate on Mars.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for input from D. E. Archer, J. C. Armstrong, B. L. Ehlmann, V. E. Hamilton, A. D. Howard, R. P. III Irwin, M. C. Palucis, D. Stolper, R. M. E. Williams and R. Wordsworth. We thank J. F. Kasting and A. G. Fairén for useful reviews. Part of the research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We acknowledge the University of Chicago’s Research Computing Center and financial support from NASA (NNX16AG55G, NNX15AM49G).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA

    Edwin S. Kite & David P. Mayer

  2. NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, 94035, USA

    Peter Gao

  3. Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    Peter Gao

  4. School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, V8P 5C2, Canada

    Colin Goldblatt

  5. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, 91109, USA

    Michael A. Mischna

  6. US Geological Survey, Astrogeology Science Center, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86001, USA

    David P. Mayer

  7. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 91125, USA

    Yuk L. Yung

Authors
  1. Edwin S. Kite
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  2. Peter Gao
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  3. Colin Goldblatt
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  4. Michael A. Mischna
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  5. David P. Mayer
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  6. Yuk L. Yung
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Contributions

E.S.K. designed research; M.A.M., Y.L.Y. and D.P.M. contributed new models, model output, and analyses; E.S.K., C.G. and P.G. carried out research; and E.S.K. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edwin S. Kite.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kite, E., Gao, P., Goldblatt, C. et al. Methane bursts as a trigger for intermittent lake-forming climates on post-Noachian Mars. Nature Geosci 10, 737–740 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo3033

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo3033

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