Late delivery of exotic chromium to the crust of Mars by water-rich carbonaceous asteroids.

Zhu, Ke; Schiller, Martin; Pan, Lu; Saji, Nikitha Susan; Larsen, Kirsten K; Amsellem, Elsa; Rundhaug, Courtney; Sossi, Paolo; Leya, Ingo; Moynier, Frederic; Bizzarro, Martin (2022). Late delivery of exotic chromium to the crust of Mars by water-rich carbonaceous asteroids. Science Advances, 8(46), eabp8415. American Association for the Advancement of Science 10.1126/sciadv.abp8415

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The terrestrial planets endured a phase of bombardment following their accretion, but the nature of this late accreted material is debated, preventing a full understanding of the origin of inner solar system volatiles. We report the discovery of nucleosynthetic chromium isotope variability (μ54Cr) in Martian meteorites that represent mantle-derived magmas intruded in the Martian crust. The μ54Cr variability, ranging from -33.1 ± 5.4 to +6.8 ± 1.5 parts per million, correlates with magma chemistry such that samples having assimilated crustal material define a positive μ54Cr endmember. This compositional endmember represents the primordial crust modified by impacting outer solar system bodies of carbonaceous composition. Late delivery of this volatile-rich material to Mars provided an exotic water inventory corresponding to a global water layer >300 meters deep, in addition to the primordial water reservoir from mantle outgassing. This carbonaceous material may also have delivered a source of biologically relevant molecules to early Mars.

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