Other
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.1401s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #14.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.434
Other
Scientific paper
Since arriving at Victoria crater, Opportunity has been imaging the stratigraphy exposed on the crater walls. At most locations, the uppermost unit is a jumbled breccia of ejecta blocks consisting of sulfate-rich sandstone. This ejecta blanket overlies a zone in which sulfate bedrock is extensively fractured in place, with an abrupt contact that is clearly visible around most of the crater rim. We interpret this contact to represent the pre-impact surface. Beneath the fractured zone lies intact bedrock. Pancam observations of the bedrock show it to be dominated by eolian facies. No clasts are visible in Pancam images; evidently the grain size is too small everywhere to be revealed by Pancam, as is the case everywhere else at Meridiani. Bedding, however, is prominent. In several locations, most notably a promontory named Cape St. Mary, there is spectacular eolian cross stratification exposed on the cliff faces, with high-angle truncations indicative of former dune deposits.
In Gusev crater, the Spirit rover has been engaged in detailed studies of material along the periphery of Home Plate, a plateau of layered bedrock that we interpret to be the eroded remnants of a basaltic pyroclastic deposit. Some soils exposed by the rover's wheels at this location are remarkably rich in silica; one soil deposit is 91 percent silica. Mini-TES spectra indicate that the material is opaline silica, and APXS spectra also show relatively high concentrations of Ti. Nearby rock outcrops are also high in silica. We are exploring the possibility that these materials developed either by precipitation from hydrothermal fluids or by leaching in a fumarolic environment. In either case, there are significant implications for both past habitability and preservation of possible biomarkers.
Athena Science Team
Squyres Steven W.
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