Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p52b..07v&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P52B-07
Other
[5415] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Erosion And Weathering, [5470] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Surface Materials And Properties, [5494] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Instruments And Techniques, [6207] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Comparative Planetology
Scientific paper
Mineral-water interactions modify primary minerals, produce new minerals as alteration products, and modify the solute loads of the solutions. Except for situations in which the solutions still coexist with reactant and product minerals, properties of the solutions (e.g., the abundances of various solutes; the duration of their contact with the minerals) must be inferred from the mineral assemblages left behind. Abundant literature exists on identifying and interpreting the paleoenvironmental significance of mineral products of such reactions on Mars (e.g., clay minerals and other phyllosilicates; sulfates; carbonates). Less literature exists on interpreting the paleoenvironmental significance of primary minerals and their properties in altered Mars materials. Since the arrival of the Mars Exploration Rovers in 2004 and the Phoenix Mars Lander in 2008, a number of new observations of primary-mineral destruction have been enabled by deployment of microscopic imagers on Mars and continued microscopic investigation of Mars meteorites in terrestrial laboratories. These include examples of alteration of both of the major minerals of Mars’ igneous rocks, olivine and pyroxene. Olivine alteration is indicated by selective removal of euhedral olivine from weathered rinds on basalt at Gusev crater, and elongate cavities of non-uniform width in olivine in the Mars meteorite Nakhla; the latter exhibit some similarities to and some differences from common arrays of corrosion pits on weathered terrestrial olivine. Pyroxene dissolution and corrosion are indicated by sharp pointed alteration features on clinopyroxene in the Mars meteorite Nakhla, scaly features on orthopyroxene at the orthopyroxene-carbonate interface in the Allan Hills 84001 Mars meteorite, and angular sawtooth features on soil grains from the Phoenix landing site, all of which are similar or identical to common corrosion textures on weathered terrestrial pyroxene and related chain-silicate minerals. Primary-mineral corrosion occurs in Mars meteorites of a range of alteration ages, from ~3.9 Ga (~ Mid-Noachian; orthopyroxene corrosion and associated carbonate formation in ALH 84001), through ~670 Ma (~ Mid-Late Amazonian; clinopyroxene corrosion and diverse alteration minerals in nakhlites), and possibly quite recently (Late Amazonian; pre-terrestrial carbonate and sulfate in the ~170 Ma-old shergottite EET 79001). Primary-mineral removal of indeterminate but possibly quite recent age is also recorded from Mars-surface microscopic imagery, including euhedral olivine molds in weathered rinds on basaltic boulders at Gusev crater and possible pyroxene corrosion in unconsolidated granular material at the Phoenix landing site, preserved despite possible physical transport and abrasion processes. These occurrences of primary-mineral modification and destruction record aqueous alteration processes over a broad range of times in the paleoenvironmental history of Mars’ surface.
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