Could Mars have had an oxygen rich atmosphere?

[Skyler4856]

Considering that Martian regolith contains a significant amount of iron OXIDE wouldn't it be a necessity for Mars to have had either large bodies of water or an oxygen atmosphere? If not please explain why.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Skyler4856

[lajoswinkler]

It's not composed mostly of iron oxide. It is mostly earth alkali metal silicates and probably lots of carbonates.

You don't need oxygen to rust iron. All you need is very hot water if you want to do it fast. Water can oxidize iron, and iron reduces hydrogen from water into elemental hydrogen.

[Bunsen]

Considering that Martian regolith contains a significant amount of iron OXIDE wouldn't it be a necessity for Mars to have had either large bodies of water or an oxygen atmosphere? If not please explain why.

Oxygen is very reactive stuff, and it doesn't tend to hang around on its own. Its natural state, at low enough temperatures to not be a plasma, is to be stuck to something like hydrogen, or silicon, or aluminum, or carbon, or iron. Having an oxygen atmosphere on a planet that's mostly metals is far from normal, and in our case it's only possible since some photosynthetic bacteria started stripping oxygen out of other compounds and dumping it into the air. Before Earth got itself covered in green stuff, it had lots of oxides, silicates, and carbonates, and no gaseous O₂.

[Simon Ross]

The simple answer is... Probably not. Whilst it almost certainly had an abundance or surface water during it's early formation, you don't actually need any kind of O2 atmosphere content to have standing bodies of water.

As others have already pointed out, the only real way you can have significant levels of free O2 in the atmosphere is for something to be producing it...ie life

Still it's not all bad, early Mars was probably very similar to early Earth and quite possibly would have been just as viable a planet for very simple life forms to exist. Unfortunately Mars low gravity and lack of magmatic field doomed it to a pretty sterile future.

[TechnicalK3rbal]

(Warning novice understanding of chemistry incoming)

Cant any oxidizer form iron oxide?

[Halsfury]

(Warning novice understanding of chemistry incoming)

Cant any oxidizer form iron oxide?

Oxidizer says it right in the name, there is really only one "oxidizer" oxygen (don't shoot me on this I know that other things can decompose metals and other such) therefore I say that "oxygen is the only oxidizer" in quotes

Iron oxide if I remember anything from chemistry is Fe, O3? I think? There can be catalysts to this process but oxide just simply denotes that an element has been compounded with oxygen.

Oxygen gives it's name to the term oxidizer because it is so reactive that it binds to almost everything, to put this in context, if I had in front of me a sealed bottle (unlabeled and mean looking), I would not open it to the air with a 50ft long pole if I could help it.

In some cases chemicals will be labeled with a diamond shaped sign which looks like a burning ball, this indicates that opening it = death, dismemberment or 3rd degree burns.

So yes oxygen is extremely reactive, which is probably why we breath it, since it carries a ton of energy, and iron oxide literally means iron + oxygen.

[TechnicalK3rbal]

Oxygen (O2)

Ozone (O3)

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and other inorganic peroxides

Fluorine (F2), chlorine (Cl2), and other halogens

Nitric acid (HNO3) and nitrate compounds

Sulfuric acid (H2SO4)

Peroxydisulfuric acid (H2S2O8)

Peroxymonosulfuric acid (H2SO5)

Chlorite, chlorate, perchlorate, and other analogous halogen compounds

Hypochlorite and other hypohalite compounds, including household bleach (NaClO)

Hexavalent chromium compounds such as chromic and dichromic acids and chromium trioxide, pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC), and chromate/dichromate compounds

Permanganate compounds such as potassium permanganate

Sodium perborate

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

Silver oxide (Ag2O)

Osmium tetroxide (OsO4)

Potassium nitrate (KNO3), the oxidizer in black powder

Tollens' reagent

2,2'-Dipyridyldisulfide (DPS)

-Wikipedia, list of oxidizers.

Article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidizing_agent

[lajoswinkler]

NHF, but I need to dismember this post in order to avoid spreading of disinformation.

Oxidizer says it right in the name, there is really only one "oxidizer" oxygen (don't shoot me on this I know that other things can decompose metals and other such) therefore I say that "oxygen is the only oxidizer" in quotes

"Oxidizer" is, for the most basic definition, any compound that can strip away electrons from the compound or element in question. The name is tied to oxygen because of historic reasons.

Iron oxide if I remember anything from chemistry is Fe, O3? I think? There can be catalysts to this process but oxide just simply denotes that an element has been compounded with oxygen.

Iron(II) oxide is FeO, iron(III) oxide is Fe₂O₃. Natural minerals can have combinations of these two, and can be hydrated with variable number of molecules of water.

Oxygen gives it's name to the term oxidizer because it is so reactive that it binds to almost everything, to put this in context, if I had in front of me a sealed bottle (unlabeled and mean looking), I would not open it to the air with a 50ft long pole if I could help it.

In some cases chemicals will be labeled with a diamond shaped sign which looks like a burning ball, this indicates that opening it = death, dismemberment or 3rd degree burns.

Tendency of an oxidizer to oxidize something is not strictly related with reaction rates. The reducing power of the reducer is important, too, as well as many other factors like temperature, pressure, concentration, etc.

So yes oxygen is extremely reactive, which is probably why we breath it, since it carries a ton of energy, and iron oxide literally means iron + oxygen.

Talking about absolute amount of energy (more precise, enthalpy (H), in this case) is impossible. It can't be measured. What counts is the difference in enthalpies, ÃŽâ€H. That can be readily measured or at least calculated from other known values.

Standard enthalpy of formation for oxygen, as well as any other element in its most basic elemental state is zero. Compounds have positive or negative standard enthalpies of formation, so then you can calculate the amount of enthalpy released or absorbed in the chemical reaction. That number can then be plugged into other equations to see whether the reaction is possible and what's the total gain or loss of energy (Gibbs energy). Again, the speed of the reaction is not in a simple relation to this.

So it's actually us that are carrying lots of energy stuffed in compound bonds.

When we talk about compounds being able to oxidize iron, we must define whether we're talking about merely creating oxides of iron, or creating Fe(II) or Fe(III) compounds. Hydrochloric acid will oxidize iron (and iron will reduce its soluble hydrogen ions into hydrogen gas). No oxygen present.

[John FX]

Anyone know if you can get the oxygen out of rust?

Would be handy.

[Kryten]

Anyone know if you can get the oxygen out of rust?

Of course, otherwise we wouldn't be able to produce iron in the first place. The usual method is to mix it with carbon monoxide, which has a higher affinity for oxygen than iron does.

[lajoswinkler]

Hot hydrogen will also reduce Fe(III) into Fe(0), metal. That procedure is used for other applications, mostly in labs for analysis.