Chemical composition of Martian fines

Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

232

Chemical Composition, Fines, Mars Surface Samples, Planetary Composition, Correlation, Errors, Regolith, Soils, Spectrometers, Viking Mars Program

Scientific paper

Of the 21 samples acquired for the Viking X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, 17 were analyzed to high precision. Compared to typical terrestrial continental soils and lunar mare fines, the Martian fines are lower in Al, higher in Fe, and much higher in S and Cl concentrations. Protected fines at the two lander sites are almost indistinguishable, but concentration of the element S is somewhat higher at Utopia. Duricrust fragments, successfully acquired only at the Chryse site, invariably contained about 50% higher S than fines. No elements correlate positively with S, except Cl and possibly Mg. A sympathetic variation is found among the triad Si, Al, Ca; positive correlation occurs between Ti and Fe. Sample variabilities are as great within a few meters as between lander locations (4500 km apart), implying the existence of a universal Martian regolith component of constant average composition. The nature of the source materials for the regolith fines must be mafic to ultramafic.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Chemical composition of Martian fines does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Chemical composition of Martian fines, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Chemical composition of Martian fines will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1758115

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.