Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39944008›Full record

ArticleNature geoscience2025

Dichotomy retreat and aqueous alteration on Noachian Mars recorded in highland remnants.

Joseph D McNeil, Peter Fawdon, Matthew R Balme, Angela L Coe, Javier Cuadros, Stuart M R Turner

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature geoscience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Joseph D McNeilSchool of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-8700-6450
Peter FawdonSchool of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-1900-8347
Matthew R BalmeSchool of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-5871-7475
Angela L CoeSchool of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-1416-5052
Javier CuadrosNatural History Museum, London, UK.
Stuart M R TurnerSchool of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-9980-3804

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The Mawrth Vallis region is a plateau situated on the highland side of Mars' hemispheric dichotomy boundary. It has a >200-m-thick phyllosilicate-bearing stratigraphic succession that indicates extensive aqueous alteration between 4.1 Ga and 3.7 Ga, during the Noachian Period. In addition, thousands of kilometre-scale isolated mounds in the lowlands north and west of Mawrth Vallis have been identified. Here we use geomorphological and spectroscopic analyses to show that the mounds are erosional remnants that formed through retreat of the highland plateau in the Noachian. Consequently, the escarpment that marks the surface expression of the dichotomy must have receded south-southeast by hundreds of kilometres in this area. Lateral and stratigraphic geochemical variation in the mounds show that widespread, multiphase aqueous alteration occurred in situ across this region in surface and subsurface environments. The mound succession is underlain by a pyroxene-rich unit that represents unaltered material below the regional phyllosilicate-bearing sequence and is unconformably overlain by a thin capping unit that marks the end of large-scale regional aqueous activity. Thus, the mounds contain a stratigraphic record of the onset, evolution and cessation of Noachian aqueous conditions in this region, detailing the environment and climate of Mars at its most habitable.

Indexed as

GeomorphologyHydrologyInner planetsMineralogy

Identifiers

PMID39944008
PMCPMC11810793

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.