Mars regolith versus SNC meteorites - Possible evidence for abundant crustal carbonates

Details Mars regolith versus SNC meteorites - Possible evidence for abundant crustal carbonates Mars regolith versus SNC meteorites - Possible evidence for abundant crustal carbonates

Apr 1987

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987icar...70..153w&link_type=abstract

Icarus (ISSN 0019-1035), vol. 70, April 1987, p. 153-161.

Computer Science

23

Carbonates, Igneous Rocks, Mars Surface, Meteoritic Composition, Planetary Geology, Regolith, Climatology, Crusts, Planetary Evolution, Mars, Regolith, Snc Meteorites, Comparisons, Composition, Abundance, Xrf, Carbonates, Crust, Viking Missions, X-Ray Methods, Fluorescence, Silicon, Shergottites, Nakhlites, Chassigny, Igneous Rocks, Calcium, Weathering, Element Ratios, Mixing, Fractionation, Formation, Samples, Meteorite, Parent Bodies, Eet Meteorites, Antarctic Meteorites, Eeta79001, Alh Meteorites, Alha77

Scientific paper

Viking XRF analyses of the Martian regolith are compared with typical igneous rocks of the Earth, the Moon, the eucrite parent asteroid, and especially the shergottites, nakhlites, and Chassigny (SNC) meteorites, which are suspected to be basalts and mafic cumulates from Mars. A striking feature of the Martian regolith is its extraordinarily low Ca/Si ratio. Several models might conceivably account for the low Ca/Si ratio, but the author suggests that most of the "missing" Ca was removed from the regolith as Ca-carbonate. Formation of a mass of carbonate equivalent to a global shell 20 m thick would suffice to remove 1000 mbar of CO2 from the Martian atmosphere. Thus, the peculiar Ca/Si ratio of the Martian regolith tends to support the hypothesis that the climate of Mars was once far warmer and wetter than it is today.

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