Abstract
The study of sulfur isotopes on Mars provides crucial insights into the planet’s formation, differentiation, and volatile evolution. Primordial sulfur isotope compositions help distinguish Martian sulfur sources, including core-mantle interactions, magmatic outgassing, and atmospheric cycling. While bulk analyses have shown limited mass-independent fractionation (MIF-S), the mechanisms introducing MIF-S into Martian magmas remain poorly understood. Using in situ secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), we analysed sulfides in four shergottites: Yamato 980459, Tissint, Gadamis 001, and NWA 11300, and found extreme heterogeneity in Δ³³S (–1.3 ± 0.48‰ to +1.42 ± 0.64‰) and δ³⁴S (–3.5 ± 0.11‰ to +0.73 ± 0.15‰). Large Δ³³S anomalies are observed in both depleted and enriched samples, indicating that MIF-S sulfur was incorporated into Martian magmatic systems through prolonged mantle-atmosphere exchange. This exchange likely began during magma ocean crystallisation and continued into later magmatic stages through ingassing, crustal assimilation, and/or recycling of crustal sulfur.
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All the elemental compositions and sulfur isotopic data for the analysed sulfides in this study are available on Zenodo, the main text and the supplementary materials. (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18760943).
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by Brown University (J.D. and K.P.) and NASA Solar System Exploration Virtual Institute (# 22-SSERVI4_2-0009 to JD and 22-SSERVI4_2- 0012 to JD and HF).
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K.P.: Conceptualisation, methodology, investigation, visualisation, writing—original draft and review and editing. J.D.: Conceptualisation, methodology, supervision, investigation, visualisation, writing—original draft, review and editing. H.F.: Investigation, visualisation, writing— original draft, review and editing. B.M.: Methodology, investigation, review and editing. N.C.: Methodology, investigation, review and editing. N.H.: Methodology, investigation, review and editing. J.C.A.: Investigation, review and editing. G.I.: Investigation, review and editing. A.I.: Review and editing. C.S.: Review and editing. HBF: Review and editing. S.O.: Review and editing.
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Patil, K., Dottin, J.W., Fu, H. et al. Sulfur isotope heterogeneity in Martian shergottites reveals early atmosphere - mantle exchange. Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03420-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03420-3
