Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Apr 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....8512c&link_type=abstract
EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #8512
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Understanding the processes leading to oxidized iron-bearing phases on the surface of Mars is of primary importance in the knowledge of Martian paleoclimatology. After the missions Viking and Pathfinder revealed the presence of strongly magnetic phases in the Martian regolith, some authors rejected the assumption of a pedogenic process of terrestrial type, based on the weakly magnetic character of terrestrial soils derived from weakly magnetic rocks. We collected a block of the Jurassic Ferrar dolerite (close to the Priestley glacier, Transantarctic Mountains), weathered in cold and dry climate, in order to study a relevant analogue of the Martian subsurface in terms of lithology and paleoclimate. This decimetric block presents a brownish red surface layer of 2 mm thickness due to microcrystalline iron (oxyhydr)oxydes. It was the subject of magnetic and mineralogical study, along the weathering gradient defined from the surface to the core, and completed with MIMOS Mössbauer analyse in the perspective of calibrating future in situ analyse on Mars. Changes in magnetic susceptibility (from 4.10-6 in the core to 10.10-6 m3/kg at the surface), as well as Natural Remanent Magnetization (NRM - from 1.10-3 in the core to 4.10-3 Am2/kg at the surface) and saturation magnetization indicates an increase in spinel concentrations. Thermomagnetic curves and multi-components NRM reveal a partial oxidation of primary titanomagnetite into titanomaghemite. The neoformed microcrystalline phases, whose Martian analogues are at the origin of the "Red Planet" spectroscopic properties, could appear little even nonmagnetic. This mineralogical and magnetic study thus rehabilitates the assumption that the strongly magnetic fraction of the Martian regolith could be inherited from the basaltic subsurface via a pedogenic process under an oxidizing atmosphere.
Chevrier Vincent
Mathe Pierre-Etienne
Rochette Pierre
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