I seem to be talking a lot about dust this week. It’s an important issue in a lot of our planetary science research; however, we mostly look at dust and its physical effects, like erosion or air quality or glacial stability. And now it turns out that we may be overlooking a very important effect — an electrical effect.

According to new research from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSL) and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, electrical effects can affect the chemical composition of a planetary body’s surface and atmosphere in a relatively short time. The study focuses on amorphous sulfur and chlorine salts found by the Curiosity rover at Gale Crater on Mars, and, per the press release: The chemical signature of these materials could have been induced by electrochemical processes during Martian dust activities in a relatively short geologic time frame: years to hundreds of years.

These electrochemical processes could cause changes in the crystal structure of minerals, removing water and causing the oxidation of sulfur, chlorine, and iron. This research should be used to make further decisions about our research priorities in upcoming Mars rover missions, and it’s suggested that we look to the subsurface of the red planet, where we could find ancient materials that might even have evidence of biomarkers. I’m all for that.

More Information

WUSL press release 

“Amorphization of S, Cl‐Salts Induced by Martian Dust Activities,” Alian Wang et al., 2020 November 17, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets