Other
Scientific paper
May 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agusm.p32a..05y&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2007, abstract #P32A-05
Other
1000 Geochemistry, 1027 Composition Of The Planets, 5400 Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
The Spirit rover has traversed approximately 7 km in 1100 sols of operations at the Gusev Crater landing site. Highlights relevant to the goal of understanding the role of liquid water at the martian surface include the following: (1) The discovery of ferric sulfates, likely hydrated, in deposits which have the unmistakable chemical signatures of nearby rocks. The movement of low pH hydrothermal fluids and/or vapors through local rocks prior to precipitation of these materials is consistent with the observations. (2) Goethite (alpha-FeOOH), a mineral phase which requires water to form, represents ~20% to 35% of the iron in numerous rock samples (Clovis Class) on the West Spur of the Columbia Hills. Aqueous alteration is clearly indicated by this presence of goethite. (3) Nearly isochemical signatures were found in elemental analyses of over ten distinct samples (Wishstone/Watchtower class rocks), but the ratio of ferric iron to total iron varied from ~0.4 to 0.95. Small quantities of water, insufficient to flush cations from the samples, were likely responsible for this weathering. (4) Also relevant to the characterizing the role of liquid water is the discovery of an ultramafic sequence of rocks where over 70% of the iron is in unaltered olivine and the ferric to total iron ratio is ~0.1. This result indicates that certain materials at the martian surface have been protected from aqueous alteration.
Science Team
Yen Albert
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