CO2 may have been trapped into rocks in a process called carbonation By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 05:19 EST, 23 October 2013 | UPDATED: 10:27 EST, 23 October 2013 Scientists have discovered how the atmosphere of Mars turned to stone. British researchers believe they have worked out how Mars lost its early carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere to become the cold and arid planet it is today. The research provides the first direct evidence on Mars of a process called 'carbonation', whereby a chemical reaction between carbon dioxide, water and chemicals within solid rock react to 'suck in' the carbon and trap it within the rock.
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CO2 may have been trapped into rocks in a process called carbonation
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Evidence of this was found in patterns of carbonate in Lafayette meteorite
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This caused Mars to become the cold and arid planet it is today
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The process also occurs on Earth, and if harnessed, could help improve technologies to battle climate change
@placeholder provides direct evidence for storage of carbon dioxide in the fairly recent history of Mars, some time after 1,300 million years.