ArticleNature communications2026
Manganese (Hydr)oxides record the dynamic evolution of a million-year Hesperian Ocean in Utopia Planitia, Mars.
Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploration of extraterrestrial biosignatures and planetary habitability: A prospect.Fundamental research · 2026Review
- The role of minerals in prebiotic evolution: Implications for identifying worlds with the potential for life's origin.Fundamental research · 2026Review
- Manganese (Hydr)oxides record the dynamic evolution of a million-year Hesperian Ocean in Utopia Planitia, Mars.Nature communications · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The duration and dynamic evolution of surface water on Mars are key to understanding its past habitability. Utopia Planitia, Mars' largest northern basin, preserves mineralogical signatures of ancient aqueous activity that remains chronologically unconstrained. Here, we present the quantitative reconstruction of the Hesperian Ocean's lifecycle using spectral analysis of manganese (Mn) (hydr)oxides as paleohydrological markers. Our innovative Spectral Contrastive-Aware Network, a deep learning framework trained on 13,742 infrared spectra of Martian soil simulants, decodes short-wave infrared data from China's Zhurong rover and orbiters operated by ESA and NASA. We identify altitude-dependent Mn (hydr)oxides enrichment that forms a distinctive mineralogical "bathtub ring", indicating an ancient ocean with defined boundaries. By quantitative mapping the spatiotemporal distribution of these minerals, we reconstruct the ocean's origin, expansion, regression, and extinction. Depositional modeling constrains its lifespan to 0.8-1.5 million years, providing the chronometrically constrained evidence for sustained surface water stability during the Hesperian.
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Registered trials
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.