Scientists Who Study the Evolution Term Paper

On Earth, volcanic eruptions trigger the carbon cycle that accounts for the eventual concentration of calcium carbonate wherever water once existed. On Mars, the absence of calcium carbonate and, even more importantly, the presence of jarosite suggests that the element sulfur may have played a comparable role to that of carbon on Earth. Specifically, Martian volcanoes apparently ejected vast quantities of sulfur dioxide (instead of carbon dioxide released in volcanoes on this planet) where it was eventually dissolved in Martian oceans to form silicates and sulfites including calcium sulfite. At the same time, the presence of calcium sulfite would also have inhibited the formation of carbonates like limestone.

Additionally, this recent observation also offers a logical explanation for how a planet like Mars which is presently far too cold to support liquid water could ever have been warm enough to do so. That answer derives from the fact that just like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide is also a greenhouse gas, which on this planet, help sustain warm temperatures.Sulfur dioxide is even more efficient at producing atmospheric warming than carbon dioxide. It may even be the case that the sulfur cycle on Mars represents conditions on the very early Earth, the evidence of which is no longer preserved on this planet. Ultimately, the sulfur cycle on Mars is just one example of how much exploration of other planets may reveal about the early history of our own planet.

References

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2007, December 27). How Mars Could Have Been Warm and Wet but Limestone Free. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 19, 2008, at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071221130045.htm.....