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<p>The Zhurong rover has identified a layer consisting of platy rocks enriched in hydrous minerals on a ~0.76-Ga surface in southern Utopia Planitia, indicating unexpected recent aqueous activity on Mars. The exact type of these hydrous minerals has remained uncertain, inhibiting our understanding of the aqueous processes and potential habitability on recent Mars. Here we document unique decimetre-scale crystal morphologies observed by the Zhurong rover within the 5–10-cm-thick surface layer, indicative of euhedral selenite, a distinctive variety of gypsum. We interpret it as a signature of primary evaporite, distinct from previously identified sulfate deposits on Mars, which can only form in the presence of surface water with a cumulative water-equivalent column over time of at least 6.25–25 m. This cumulative thickness could have been achieved by either sustained or episodic upwelling of saline groundwater driven by magmatic activity into a very shallow, mostly ice-covered surface water body, whereas at any given time the actual liquid water layer would probably have been on the order of a metre or less. The large crystals of gypsum var. selenite are likely to contain abundant fluid inclusions—microscale pockets of ancient brine that could provide a unique window into the geochemical and potentially even biological environment of the Martian subsurface during the Amazonian period.</p>

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Primary evaporite in southern Utopia Planitia on Mars from Zhurong rover observations

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月29日

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  • Jiacheng Liu,
  • Bo Wu,
  • Wenyuan Gao,
  • James W. Head III,
  • Joseph R. Michalski,
  • Mei-Fu Zhou,
  • Anthony E. Williams-Jones,
  • Xingao Hou,
  • Zongcheng Ling,
  • Zhongchen Wu,
  • Changqing Liu,
  • Yuqi Qian,
  • Honglei Lin,
  • Sen Hu,
  • Yu Sun,
  • Wei Tan,
  • Xiao Wang,
  • Guochun Zhao

摘要

The Zhurong rover has identified a layer consisting of platy rocks enriched in hydrous minerals on a ~0.76-Ga surface in southern Utopia Planitia, indicating unexpected recent aqueous activity on Mars. The exact type of these hydrous minerals has remained uncertain, inhibiting our understanding of the aqueous processes and potential habitability on recent Mars. Here we document unique decimetre-scale crystal morphologies observed by the Zhurong rover within the 5–10-cm-thick surface layer, indicative of euhedral selenite, a distinctive variety of gypsum. We interpret it as a signature of primary evaporite, distinct from previously identified sulfate deposits on Mars, which can only form in the presence of surface water with a cumulative water-equivalent column over time of at least 6.25–25 m. This cumulative thickness could have been achieved by either sustained or episodic upwelling of saline groundwater driven by magmatic activity into a very shallow, mostly ice-covered surface water body, whereas at any given time the actual liquid water layer would probably have been on the order of a metre or less. The large crystals of gypsum var. selenite are likely to contain abundant fluid inclusions—microscale pockets of ancient brine that could provide a unique window into the geochemical and potentially even biological environment of the Martian subsurface during the Amazonian period.