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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Science Advances

Enigmatic HCl detections as a potential signature of igneous activity on Mars

  • Alexander Trokhimovskiy1
  • Daniel Mège2,3
  • Oleg Korablev1
  • Kevin S. Olsen4
  • Anna A. Fedorova1
  • Benjamin Taysum5
  • Pierre-Antoine Tesson2
  • Mikhail Luginin1
  • Franck Montmessin6
  • Pavel Vlasov1
  • Alexey Grigoriev7
  • Juan Alday8,9
9 more authors
  • Denis Belyaev1
  • Nikolay Ignatiev1
  • Andrey Patrakeev1
  • Nikita Kokonkov1
  • Yuriy Ivanov10
  • Joanna Gurgurewicz2
  • Antoine Pommerol3
  • Gabriele Cremonese11
  • Nicolas Thomas3
11 affiliations
  1. 1Space Research Institute RAS, Profsoyuznaya 84/32, Moscow 117997, Russia.
  2. 2Centrum Badań Kosmicznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk (CBK PAN), Bartycka 18A, 00-716 Warszawa, Poland.
  3. 3Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
  4. 4Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK.
  5. 5German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany.
  6. 6LATMOS/CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Sorbonne Université, Guyancourt, France.
  7. 7Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
  8. 8School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
  9. 9Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Granada, Spain.
  10. 10Main Astronomical Observatory (MAO), National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine.
  11. 11Astronomical Observatory of Padova, INAF, Padova, Italy.
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Abstract

Mars is reputed to lack ongoing volcanic activity. However, marsquakes were revealed recently, and clues to volcanism younger than tens of million years have accumulated. While sulfur dioxide, so far undetected, could testify to ongoing eruptive activity, evidence of active magma chambers may be better identified by seepage of halogen gases, such as hydrogen chloride (HCl). Observations by Atmospheric Chemistry Suite led to the widespread observations of HCl at part-per-billion levels in the atmosphere of Mars during the warm perihelion period, attributed to aerosol-atmospheric sources. Here, we report HCl detections during the cold aphelion season that are isolated in the Alba Mons region. We also identify fresh and narrow (<1 meter) fissures in this area, which we interpret to be potential HCl pathways rooted into magmatic bodies at depth. Our results are best explained by ongoing igneous processes in the Martian interior.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{trokhimovskiy2026enigmatic,
  title = {{Enigmatic HCl detections as a potential signature of igneous activity on Mars}},
  author = {Alexander Trokhimovskiy and Daniel Mège and Oleg Korablev and Kevin S. Olsen and Anna A. Fedorova and Benjamin Taysum and Pierre-Antoine Tesson and Mikhail Luginin and Franck Montmessin and Pavel Vlasov and Alexey Grigoriev and Juan Alday and Denis Belyaev and Nikolay Ignatiev and Andrey Patrakeev and Nikita Kokonkov and Yuriy Ivanov and Joanna Gurgurewicz and Antoine Pommerol and Gabriele Cremonese and Nicolas Thomas},
  journal = {Science Advances},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aeb9422},
  url = {https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/sciadv.aeb9422},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Enigmatic HCl detections as a potential signature of igneous activity on Mars
AU  - Alexander Trokhimovskiy
AU  - Daniel Mège
AU  - Oleg Korablev
AU  - Kevin S. Olsen
AU  - Anna A. Fedorova
AU  - Benjamin Taysum
AU  - Pierre-Antoine Tesson
AU  - Mikhail Luginin
AU  - Franck Montmessin
AU  - Pavel Vlasov
AU  - Alexey Grigoriev
AU  - Juan Alday
AU  - Denis Belyaev
AU  - Nikolay Ignatiev
AU  - Andrey Patrakeev
AU  - Nikita Kokonkov
AU  - Yuriy Ivanov
AU  - Joanna Gurgurewicz
AU  - Antoine Pommerol
AU  - Gabriele Cremonese
AU  - Nicolas Thomas
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/04
JO  - Science Advances
DO  - 10.1126/sciadv.aeb9422
UR  - https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/sciadv.aeb9422
AB  - Mars is reputed to lack ongoing volcanic activity. However, marsquakes were revealed recently, and clues to volcanism younger than tens of million years have accumulated. While sulfur dioxide, so far undetected, could testify to ongoing eruptive activity, evidence of active magma chambers may be better identified by seepage of halogen gases, such as hydrogen chloride (HCl). Observations by Atmospheric Chemistry Suite led to the widespread observations of HCl at part-per-billion levels in the atmosphere of Mars during the warm perihelion period, attributed to aerosol-atmospheric sources. Here, we report HCl detections during the cold aphelion season that are isolated in the Alba Mons region. We also identify fresh and narrow (<1 meter) fissures in this area, which we interpret to be potential HCl pathways rooted into magmatic bodies at depth. Our results are best explained by ongoing igneous processes in the Martian interior.
SN  - 2375-2548
ER  -