Habitability of hydrothermal systems at Jezero and Gusev Craters as constrained by hydrothermal alteration of a terrestrial mafic dike

Abstract

NASA's search for habitable environments has focused on alteration mineralogy of the Martian crust and the formation of hydrous minerals, because they reveal information about the fluid and environmental conditions from which they precipitated. Extensive work has focused on the formation of alteration minerals at low temperatures, with limited work investigating metamorphic or high-temperature alteration. We have investigated such a site as an analog for Mars: a mafic dike on the Colorado Plateau that was hydrothermally altered from contact with groundwater as it was emplaced in the porous and permeable Jurassic Entrada sandstone.