The team makes the case that, while water was present on Mars, the liquid could have trickled through certain rock types and set off a slow chain of reactions that progressively drew carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and converted it into methane - a form of carbon that could be stored for eons in the planet's clay surface. Similar processes occur in some regions on Earth.
They found that, given how much clay is estimated to cover Mars' surface, the planet's clay could hold up to 1.7 bar of carbon dioxide, which would be equivalent to around 80 percent of the planet's initial, early atmosphere.
It's possible that this sequestered Martian carbon could one day be recovered and converted into propellant to fuel future missions between Mars and Earth, the researchers propose.
'Based on our findings on Earth, we show that similar processes likely operated on Mars, and that copious amounts of atmospheric CO2 could have transformed to methane and been sequestered in clays,' says study author Oliver Jagoutz, professor of geology in MIT.
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