Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p44a..08w&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P44A-08
Other
5220 Hydrothermal Systems And Weathering On Other Planets, 5410 Composition (1060, 3672), 5455 Origin And Evolution, 5470 Surface Materials And Properties, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
Recent results from missions to Mars have reinforced the importance of sulfates for Mars science. They are the hosts of water, the sinks of acidity, and maybe the most active species in the past and current surface/near-surface processes on Mars. Fe-sulfate was found frequently by Spirit and Opportunity rovers: jarosite in Meridiani Planum outcrops and a less specific "ferric sulfate" in the salty soils excavated by Spirit at Gusev Crater. Pancam spectral analysis suggests a variety of ferric sulfates in these soils, i.e. ferricopiapite, jarosite, fibroferrite, and rhomboclase. A change in the Pancam spectral features occurred in Tyrone soils after ~ 190 sols of exposure to surface conditions. Dehydration of ferric sulfate is a possible cause. We synthesized eight ferric sulfates and conducted a series of hydration/dehydration experiments. Our goal was to establish the stability fields and phase transition pathways of these ferric sulfates. In our experiments, water activity, temperature, and starting structure are the variables. No redox state change was observed. Acidic, neutral, and basic salts were used. Ferric sulfate sample containers were placed into relative humidity buffer solutions that maintain static relative humidity levels at three temperatures. The five starting phases were ferricopiapite (Fe4.67(SO4)6(OH)2.20H2O), kornelite (Fe2(SO4)3.7H2O), rhomboclase (FeH(SO4)2.4H2O), pentahydrite (Fe2(SO4)3.5H2O), and an amorphous phase (Fe2(SO4)3.5H2O). A total of one hundred fifty experiments have been running for nearly ten months. Thousands of coupled Raman and gravimetric measurements were made at intermediate steps to monitor the phase transitions. The first order discovery from these experiments is the extremely large stability field of ferricopiapite. Ferricopiapite is the major ferric sulfate to precipitate from a Fe3+-S-rich aqueous solution at mid-low temperature, and it has the highest H2O/Fe ratio (~ 4.3). However, unlike the Mg-sulfate with highest hydration state (epsomite, at mid-low temperature), which would dehydrate readily at low relative humidity, ferricopiapite remains unchanged over ten months under extremely dry conditions. On the other hand, amorphous ferric sulfate which forms easily from solutions at dry conditions, is similar to the amorphous magnesium sulfate in stability field, thus can potentially be a very important phase in the phase transition pathways of ferric sulfates on Mars.
Freeman John J.
Ling Zhixing
Wang Anzhong
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