U.S. Geologist Discovers Earth-Like Soils on Mars

This was just posted today, 8/22/2014 and I find it interesting as I believe there once was life on Mars and Earth at the same time. I think things are being held from the public in regard to findings on Mars, as most of us on here do. I am definitely convinced Mars once had some form of intelligent life.

Paleosols(ancient fossilized soils) filling the Yellowknife Bay geologic formation within the 3.7-billion-year-old Gale Crater on Mars are strong evidence that the planet was once much warmer and wetter, says geologist Dr Gregory Retallack of the University of Oregon, based on images recently released by NASA.

“The images, taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, reveal Earth-like soil profiles with cracked surfaces lined with sulfate, ellipsoidal hollows and concentrations of sulfate comparable with soils in the Antarctic Dry Valleys and the Chile’s Atacama Desert,” Dr Retallack said.

He identified two new types of Martian soil – the Yila paleosol (named after the woman who dreamed of arriving astronauts in the Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, 1950) and the Spender paleosol (named after the archaeologist in the same novel).

“Their dating to 3.7 billion years ago puts them into a time of transition from an early benign water cycle on Mars to the acidic and arid Mars of today.”

Yila and Spender paleosols do not prove that the Red Planet once contained life, but they do add to growing evidence that an early Mars was more habitable than the planet has been in the past 3 billion years.

“The new data show clear chemical weathering trends, and clay accumulation at the expense of the mineral olivine, as expected in soils on Earth,” explained Dr Retallack, who reported the findings in the journal Geology.

“Phosphorus depletion within the profiles is especially tantalizing, because it attributed to microbial activity on Earth.”

“Life on Earth is believed to have emerged and began diversifying about 3.5 million years ago, but some researchers have theorized that potential evidence that might take life on Earth farther back was destroyed by plate tectonics, which did not occur on Mars.”

News Source

a reply to: OptimusCrime

So he discovered new soils using pictures? Don't you need like a actual sample or something.

originally posted by: ZeussusZ
a reply to: OptimusCrime

So he discovered new soils using pictures? Don't you need like a actual sample or something.

In other sources he's said he analyzed the Rover's readings.

"The pictures were the first clue, but then all the data really nailed it," Retallack said. "The key to this discovery has been the superb chemical and mineral analytical capability of the Curiosity Rover, which is an order of magnitude improvement over earlier generations of rovers. The new data show clear chemical weathering trends, and clay accumulation at the expense of the mineral olivine, as expected in soils on Earth. Phosphorus depletion within the profiles is especially tantalizing, because it attributed to microbial activity on Earth."

ScienceDaily

makes sense the pictures of Mars reminds him of some places here on Earth

except for not having an ocean the planets might be similar

originally posted by: blacktie
makes sense the pictures of Mars reminds him of some places here on Earth

except for not having an ocean the planets might be similar

With the recent findings about the ISS having plankton on it, it wouldn't be off base for debris from Mars landing on Earth and vise-versa.

originally posted by: OptimusCrime
This was just posted today, 8/22/2014 and I find it interesting as I believe there once was life on Mars and Earth at the same time. I think things are being held from the public in regard to findings on Mars, as most of us on here do. I am definitely convinced Mars once had some form of intelligent life.

Paleosols(ancient fossilized soils) filling the Yellowknife Bay geologic formation within the 3.7-billion-year-old Gale Crater on Mars are strong evidence that the planet was once much warmer and wetter, says geologist Dr Gregory Retallack of the University of Oregon, based on images recently released by NASA.

“The images, taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, reveal Earth-like soil profiles with cracked surfaces lined with sulfate, ellipsoidal hollows and concentrations of sulfate comparable with soils in the Antarctic Dry Valleys and the Chile’s Atacama Desert,” Dr Retallack said.

He identified two new types of Martian soil – the Yila paleosol (named after the woman who dreamed of arriving astronauts in the Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, 1950) and the Spender paleosol (named after the archaeologist in the same novel).

“Their dating to 3.7 billion years ago puts them into a time of transition from an early benign water cycle on Mars to the acidic and arid Mars of today.”

Yila and Spender paleosols do not prove that the Red Planet once contained life, but they do add to growing evidence that an early Mars was more habitable than the planet has been in the past 3 billion years.

“The new data show clear chemical weathering trends, and clay accumulation at the expense of the mineral olivine, as expected in soils on Earth,” explained Dr Retallack, who reported the findings in the journal Geology.

“Phosphorus depletion within the profiles is especially tantalizing, because it attributed to microbial activity on Earth.”

“Life on Earth is believed to have emerged and began diversifying about 3.5 million years ago, but some researchers have theorized that potential evidence that might take life on Earth farther back was destroyed by plate tectonics, which did not occur on Mars.”

News Source

Why is NASA holding anything back when this guy is saying EXACTLY what NASA has been saying?

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

I believe there' s other information they have that has not been released.

considering it has dry river beds its probably a safe bet to say it was once fertile. one might say like looking into a looking glass hmmm.

originally posted by: OptimusCrime
a reply to: OccamsRazor04

I believe there' s other information they have that has not been released.

So something that agrees exactly with what NASA has been saying is evidence of a NASA cover up ....

there are situations I can imagine where mars would have such a short, transient liquid water cycle that it never really had the opportunity to develop any meaningful life forms (how about that for ego...presuming single celled life isn't "meaningful"?).

For example, rapid ice melt and sublimation.

At the rate we are currently exploring Mars, I m not sure if any of us will live long enough to get any answers as to what happened there. Valles Marineris....Mons Olympus....they seem to be connected somehow. What happened to them? When? Is it connected to the loss of magnetic field? Formation of its moons? Where is the water? Why does some of the soil look outright muddy?

“Life on Earth is believed to have emerged and began diversifying about 3.5 million years ago, but some researchers have theorized that potential evidence that might take life on Earth farther back was destroyed by plate tectonics, which did not occur on Mars.”

I'm assuming the article meant BILLION.

originally posted by: ZeussusZ
a reply to: OptimusCrime

So he discovered new soils using pictures? Don't you need like a actual sample or something.

Not necessarily. It's called stratigraphy and one can specialize in it. I went on several fossil digs with my university aeons ago and much of what was discussed as we passed through areas was the stratigraphy. You can actually tell a whole lot based on those little lines etched into the soil in terms of climate and more. On digs, we were told to look for dark lines in the stratigraphy as those were the most likely areas to find fossils as it would be soil build up from the carboniferous period. It showed up as a very dark streak.

Stratigraphy is actually pretty cool because there is so much that you can see about what has happened in an area over the passage of time and even cooler when they are broken and disjointed by seismic action.

Mars certainly did have life on it once upon a time, however whether it sustained or evolved intelligent life in its short and brief life is altogether another matter, personally I very much doubt it unless intelligent life settled there themselves