Antarctic Research Finds New Mechanism for Nitrous Oxide Production
27.04.2010 - Atmosphere & Space, Water & Oceans, Land & Geology, Antarctic
New research appearing in the journal Nature Geoscience reports that biogeochemists from the University of Georgia have been able to find a previously unreported chemical mechanism for the production of nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas. The discovery, which they made in the saltiest body of water on earth - Don Juan Pond in Antarctica (eight times saltier than the Dead Sea) - is particularly important since it could help scientists understand the meaning of similar bodies of water in a place with similar conditions: Mars.
While they did not detect any gases such as hydrogen sulfite or methane, the team measured high concentrations of nitrous oxide, adding a new variable to growing evidence that Mars once had liquid water, a prerequisite for the formation of life. Thanks to these new findings, scientists might be able to develop sensors for detecting such brines on Mars.
Wearing sterile suits and masks, the researchers began sampling and found a suite of brine-rock reactions which generate a variety of products, including nitrous oxide and hydrogen. Even more interesting is the additional mechanism which - through a reaction of brine-derived nitrates with basaltic rock - might be a new means of mobilizing nitrate from the surface soils and returning it to the Martian atmosphere as nitrous oxide. This mechanism opens several paths that have to be studied, among which a possible new clue to understanding greenhouse gases involved in global warming.
The most important opening, however, might be the understanding of how similar brine pools on Mars could function and maybe even support life.
