New Mars Forums

Calliban

Member

From: Northern England, UK

Registered: 2019-08-18

Posts: 3,793

Mars has fewer minerals than Earth

Worthy of its own thread, as it is absolutely pivotal to human colonisation.
https://eos.org/research-spotlights/mar … earth-does

The absence of life has resulted in a much simpler minerology on Mars.  This does not bode well for human prospects on the planet.  On Earth, several thousand unique minerals have been identified.  So far, only a couple of hundred minerals have been found on Mars.  Although the minerology of the planet is not fully understood, it is still expected that Earth's mineral diversity is an order of magnitude greater than that of Mars. If so, Martian geology is closer to that of the moon than it is to Earth.  This will make establishing any sort of civilisation there more difficult.

The original paper can be found here:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com … 23JE007865

Last edited by Calliban (2023-10-22 18:24:43)

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"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

tahanson43206

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Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,382

Re: Mars has fewer minerals than Earth

For Calliban re new topic ...

Best wishes for success !!! It seems to me there is plenty of room for members to add insights, facts, links and questions.

I'll start with this one ...

Minerals are just clusters of elements.

How does Mars compare for elements?

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Mars has fewer minerals than Earth

Nearly 6,000 different minerals are known to exist on Earth, but after more than 50 years of investigations, only 161 minerals have been recorded on Mars—a dramatically lower number for a planet that shares much in common with our own. The difference, according to a new study, has arisen because minerals on Mars have had fewer pathways to form compared with those on Earth, even though both planets began on very similar trajectories for mineral evolution.

That would also tend to tell us that there are not as many elements as well that can form into these minerals. This is where other factors come in of water and gravity too for mars small size and location in orbit around the sun.

Between the rovers we have been able to identify many by they are quite slow to do this.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,382

Re: Mars has fewer minerals than Earth

For Calliban and SpaceNut .... This topic needs specifics, so I hope they are added over time.

It seems to me there must be a reason why having more minerals is a "good thing".

This is an education opportunity.   However, hand waving is not helpful.

I'd like to see specific explanations of why a particular mineral is useful for something, and why the lack of that specific mineral is regarded as a problem for those who will be living on Mars.

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Mars has fewer minerals than Earth

Here is just a few that are in the unmanned topics

Of course what we are looking for after building such as silica
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com … 19GL085584
are organic
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06143-z

Calliban

Member

From: Northern England, UK

Registered: 2019-08-18

Posts: 3,793

Re: Mars has fewer minerals than Earth

There are 92 naturally occuring elements on the periodic table from hydrogen to uranium.  If Mars has fewer minerals, then there are fewer pathways for these elements to form concentrated ores.  In some cases, this will not be problematic.  We know that Mars regolith is relatively more abundant in iron, manganese, phosphorus and sulphur than most Earth soils.  Copper ores are associated with volcanism, which Mars demonstrates in abundance.  The absence of a dynamic crust may increase abundance of trapped gases like argon, helium and maybe even organics.  But we might struggle to find concentrated ore bodies of uranium, for example, if Martian conditions were not conducive to concentrating this element.  There are ways in which Martian conditions could be advantageous.  The lack of hydrosphere will preserve meteorites on its surface for much longer than they would survive on Earth.  That may make nickel, cobalt and some rare earths easier to find.

The long shot: Some elements will be harder to come by on Mars.  Those that lack ore forming processes will be rarer and will need more energy to extract from mined rock.  This is yet another reason why colonists living on Mars will need abundant and cheap energy.  Mineral paucity will make mining more energy intensive.  We can add mining to a long list of activities that will require more energy on Mars.  Along with sourcing water, making steel, growing food, staying warm.  Any long term human presence on the red planet implies much greater per capita energy use than the same group of people living on Earth.  For Martians to be wealthy, energy must be cheap.  Martians will have be cosy with nuclear power, because they will need a lot of it.  We just found another reason why this is true.

Last edited by Calliban (2023-10-23 11:18:54)

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"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."