A Habitable Fluvio-Lacustrine Environment at Yellowknife Bay, Gale Crater, Mars

Authors: J. P. Grotzinger, D. Y. Sumner, Linda C. Kah, K. M. Stack, Sanjeev Gupta, L. A. Edgar, David M. Rubin, K. W. Lewis, Jüergen Schieber, N. Mangold, R. E. Milliken, P. G. Conrad, David J. DesMarais, Jack D. Farmer, K. L. Siebach, F. J. Calef, J. A. Hurowitz, S. M. McLennan, D. W. Ming, D. T. Vaniman, J. A. Crisp, A. R. Vasavada, K. S. Edgett, M. C. Malin, D. F. Blake, R. Gellert, P. R. Mahaffy, R. C. Wiens, S. Maurice, J. A. Grant, Sharon A. Wilson, Robert C. Anderson, L. W. Beegle, R. E. Arvidson, B. Hallet, R. S. Sletten, M. S. Rice, J. F. Bell, J. L. Griffes, B. L. Ehlmann, R. B. Anderson, T. F. Bristow, W. E. Dietrich, Gilles Dromart, J. L. Eigenbrode, A. A. Fraeman, C. Hardgrove, K. E. Herkenhoff, Louise Jandura, Gary Kocurek, S. Lee, L. A. Leshin, Richard Léveillé, D. Limonadi, J. N. Maki, Scott McCloskey, Michael A. Meÿer, M. E. Minitti, H. E. Newsom, Dorothy Z. Oehler, A. Okon, M. C. Palucis, T. J. Parker, Scott K. Rowland, M. E. Schmidt, S. W. Squyres, A. Steele, E. M. Stolper, Roger E. Summons, A. H. Treiman, R. M. E. Williams, Aileen Yingst, MSL Science Team, Osku Kemppinen, Nathan Bridges, J. R. Johnson, David A. Cremers, Austin Godber, M. Wadhwa, Danika Wellington, Ian McEwan, Claire Newman, M. I. Richardson, Antoine Charpentier, Laurent Péret, P. L. King, Jennifer G. Blank, Gerald Weigle, Shuai Li, Kevin M. Robertson, V. Z. Sun, Michael Baker, Christopher S. Edwards, Kenneth A. Farley, Hayden Miller, Megan Newcombe, Cedric Pilorget, Claude Brunet, Victoria Hipkin, Richard Léveillé, Geneviève Marchand, Pablo Sobrón Sánchez, Laurent Favot, George D. Cody, Lorenzo Flückiger, David Lees, Ara Nefian, Mildred Martin, M. Gailhanou, Francès Westall, Guy Israël, Christophe Agard, Julien Baroukh, Christophe Donny, Alain Gaboriaud, Philippe Guillemot, Vivian Lafaille, Éric Lorigny, Alexis Paillet, R. Pérez, M. Saccoccio, Charles Yana, Carlos Armiens‐Aparicio, Javier Rodríguez, Isaías Carrasco Blázquez, Felipe Gómez, Javier Gómez‐Elvira, Sebastian Hettrich, Alain Lepinette Malvitte, Mercedes Marín Jiménez, Jesús Martínez‐Frías, Javier Martín-Soler, Javier Martín‐Torres, Antonio Molina Jurado, Luis Mora‐Sotomayor, G. M. Muñoz, Sara Navarro López, Verónica Peinado-González, Jorge Pla‐García, J. A. Rodríguez‐Manfredi, Julio José Romeral-Planelló, Sara Alejandra Sans Fuentes, Eduardo Sebastian Martinez, Josefina Torres Redondo, Roser Urqui-O’Callaghan, María-Paz Zorzano Mier, S. J. Chipera, Jean-Luc Lacour, Patrick Mauchien, Jean‐Baptiste Sirven, Heidi Manning, Alberto González Fairén, Alexander G. Hayes, Jonathan Joseph, Robert Sullivan, P. C. Thomas, Audrey Dupont, Angela Lundberg, Noureddine Melikechi, Alissa Mezzacappa, Julia DeMarines, David Grinspoon, Günther Reitz, Benito Prats, Evgeny Atlaskin, Maria Genzer, Ari‐Matti Harri, Harri Haukka, Henrik Kahanpää, Janne Kauhanen, Mark Paton, Jouni Polkko, Walter Schmidt, T. Siili, C. Fabre, J. J. Wray, Mary Beth Wilhelm, Franck Poitrasson, Kiran Patel, Stephen Gorevan, Stephen Indyk, G. Paulsen, D. L. Bish, Brigitte Gondet, Yves Langevin, Claude Geffroy, David Baratoux, Gilles Berger, Alain Cros, C. d’Uston, Olivier Forni, O. Gasnault, Jérémie Lasue, Qiu-Mei Lee, Pierre‐Yves Meslin, E. Pallier, Yann Parot, Patrick Pinet, Susanne Schröder, Mike Toplis, Éric Lewin, Will Brunner, Ezat Heydari, Cherie Achilles, B. Sutter, M. Cabane, David Coscia, Cyril Szopa, François Robert, V. Sautter, Stéphane Le Mouëlic, Marion Nachon, A. Buch, Fabien Stalport, Patrice Coll, Pascaline François, F. Raulin, Samuel Teinturier, James F. Cameron, Sam Clegg, A. Cousin, Dorothea DeLapp, Robert Dingler, Ryan Steele Jackson, Stephen Johnstone, N. Lanza, Cynthia Little, Tony Nelson, Richard B. Williams, Andrea Jones, Laurel Kirkland, Burt Baker, B. A. Cantor, M. A. Caplinger, Scott Davis, Brian Duston, Donald Fay, D. E. Harker, Paul Herrera, Elsa Jensen, Megan R. Kennedy, Gillian Krezoski, Daniel Krysak, Leslie Lipkaman, Elaina McCartney, Sean McNair, Brian Nixon, L. Posiolova, M. A. Ravine, Andrew Salamon, Lee Saper, Kevin Stoiber, Kimberley Supulver, Jason Van Beek, Tessa Van Beek, Robert Zimdar, Katherine L. French, Karl Iagnemma, Kristen Miller, F. Goesmann, Walter Goetz, S. F. Hviid, Micah Johnson, Matthew Lefavor, Eric Lyness, Elly Breves, M. D. Dyar, C. I. Fassett, Laurence Edwards, Robert Haberle, Tori Hoehler, Jeff Hollingsworth, M. A. Kahre, Leslie Keely, Christopher P. McKay, L. V. Bleacher, W. B. Brinckerhoff, David Choi, Jason P. Dworkin, Melissa Floyd, Caroline Freissinet, James Garvin, D. P. Glavin, Daniel Harpold, David K. Martin, A. C. McAdam, Alexander A. Pavlov, E. Raaen, Michael D. Smith, J. C. Stern, Florence Tan, M. G. Trainer, A. Posner, Mary Voytek, A. D. Aubrey, A. Behar, D. L. Blaney, D. E. Brinza, L. E. Christensen, Lauren DeFlores, Jason Feldman, Sabrina Feldman, Gregory J. Flesch, I. Jun, Didier Keymeulen, Michael Mischna, John Michael Morookian, Betina Pavri, Marcel Schoppers, Aaron Sengstacken, John J. Simmonds, N. Spanovich, Manuel de la Torre Juárez, Christopher R. Webster, A. S. Yen, P. D. Archer, Francis Cucinotta, John H. Jones, Richard V. Morris, P. B. Niles, Elizabeth Rampe, Thomas Nolan, M. R. Fisk, Leon J. Radziemski, Bruce Barraclough, Steve Bender, D. C. Berman, E. Noe Dobrea, Robert Tokar, T. Cleghorn, Wesley T. Huntress, G. Manhès, Judy Hudgins, Timothy Olson, Noel Stewart, Philippe Sarrazin, Edward P. Vicenzi, Mark Bullock, Bent Ehresmann, V. E. Hamilton, Donald M. Hassler, Joseph G. Peterson, Scot Rafkin, Cary Zeitlin, F. Fedosov, Dmitry Golovin, Natalya Karpushkina, Alexander Kozyrev, M. L. Litvak, A. Malakhov, И. Г. Митрофанов, Maxim Mokrousov, Sergey Nikiforov, В. А. Прохоров, Anton Sanin, V. I. Tretyakov, A. Varenikov, Andrey Vostrukhin, R. N. Kuz’min, Benton Clark, M. J. Wolff, Oliver Botta, Darrell M. Drake, Keri Bean, M. T. Lemmon, S. P. Schwenzer, Ella Mae Lee, Robert Sucharski, Miguel Ángel de Pablo Hernández, J. J. Blanco, Miguel Ramos, Myung‐Hee Y. Kim, C. A. Malespin, Ianik Plante, Jan‐Peter Müller, R. Navarro‐González, R. C. Ewing, W. V. Boynton, Robert Downs, Mike Fitzgibbon, K. Harshman, Shaunna M. Morrison, Onno Kortmann, Amy J. Williams, G. W. Lugmair, Michael A. Wilson, B. M. Jakosky, T. Balić-Žunić, Jens Frydenvang, Jaqueline Kløvgaard Jensen, Kjartan Kinch, Asmus Koefoed, Morten Bo Madsen, S. L. S. Stipp, Nick Boyd, John L. Campbell, G. M. Perrett, Irina Pradler, Scott VanBommel, Samantha Jacob, Tobias Owen, Hannu Savijärvi, E. Boehm, Stephan Böttcher, S. Burmeister, Jingnan Guo, Jan Köhler, César Martín García, R. Mueller‐Mellin, R. F. Wimmer‐Schweingruber, John C. Bridges, Timothy McConnochie, M. Benna, H. B. Franz, Hannah Bower, Anna Brunner, Hannah Blau, Thomas Boucher, Marco Carmosino, Sushil Atreya, Harvey Elliott, Douglas Halleaux, N. O. Rennó, Michael H. Wong, Robert Pepin, Beverley Elliott, John Spray, Lucy Thompson, S. Gordon, A. Ollila, Joshua Williams, Paulo Vasconcelos, Jennifer Bentz, Kenneth H. Nealson, Radu Popa, J. Moersch, Christopher Tate, Mackenzie Day, Raymond Francis, Emily McCullough, Ed Cloutis, I. L. ten Kate, Daniel Scholes, S. Slavney, Thomas Stein, Jennifer Ward, Jeffrey Berger, John E. Moores - Science 2013 cited by 905

The Curiosity rover discovered fine-grained sedimentary rocks, which are inferred to represent an ancient lake and preserve evidence of an environment that would have been suited to support a martian biosphere founded on chemolithoautotrophy. This aqueous environment was characterized by neutral pH, low salinity, and variable redox states of both iron and sulfur species. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus were measured directly as key biogenic elements; by inference, phosphorus is assumed to have been available. The environment probably had a minimum duration of hundreds to tens of thousands of years. These results highlight the biological viability of fluvial-lacustrine environments in the post-Noachian history of Mars.