As we already knew from elsewhere in the solar system, fossils are not essential for the production of methane aka natural gas. Only two ingredients are needed, one being water, as explained below.
New research from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) published Aug. 19, 2019, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science provides evidence of the formation and abundance of abiotic methane—methane formed by chemical reactions that don’t involve organic matter—on Earth and shows how the gases could have a similar origin on other planets and moons, even those no longer home to liquid water.
Researchers had long noticed methane released from deep-sea vents, says Phys.org. But while the gas is plentiful in the atmosphere where it’s produced by living things, the source of methane at the seafloor was a mystery.
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“The methane on Mars has other possible sources, such as water-rock reactions or decomposing materials containing methane.”
Last year, scientists learned that methane concentrations changed over the course of the seasons with a repeatable annual cycle.
“This most recent work suggests that the methane concentration changes over the course of each day*,” Dr. Moores said.
