Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p44a..08m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P44A-08
Other
1009 Geochemical Modeling (3610, 8410), 1060 Planetary Geochemistry (5405, 5410, 5704, 5709, 6005, 6008), 5480 Volcanism (6063, 8148, 8450), 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
Igneous rock classes in Gusev crater analyzed by the Spirit rover include Adirondack and Irvine basalts, Backstay trachybasalt, Wishstone basanite, Algonquin tephrite, and Home Plate basaltic tephra. The chemical compositions of all these rocks, analyzed by APXS, are mildly alkaline. Gusev melts were oxidized, as determined by Moessbauer spectrometry, and likely contained water, as suggested by vesicles and probable pyroclastic activity. Experiments suggest that Adirondack-class basalt was multiply saturated with olivine, pyroxene, and spinel at 1.0 GPa (85 km depth), and is likely to have been a primary magma. MELTS models indicate that the other igneous rocks in Gusev could have been generated by fractional crystallization of Adirondack-class magma at pressures varying between 1.0 and 0.1 GPa. In hindsight, the discovery of alkaline magmas on Mars should not have been surprising. Models for the Mars mantle have higher abundances of volatile elements (including sodium and potassium) than the Earth's mantle, and melting of such a mantle source could produce alkaline magmas. A liquid line-of-descent calculated for the intercumulus melt, as well as interstitial glasses, in the Nakhla martian meteorite also resemble alkaline fractionation paths for Gusev rocks. Other rocks from Mars are subalkaline, possibly reflecting their derivation from depleted mantle that had already lost alkalis, or melting at lower pressures.
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