Spectral comparison of heavily hydrated salts with disrupted terrains on Europa

Details Spectral comparison of heavily hydrated salts with disrupted terrains on Europa Spectral comparison of heavily hydrated salts with disrupted terrains on Europa

Oct 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005icar..177..472d&link_type=abstract

Icarus, Volume 177, Issue 2, p. 472-490.

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Scientific paper

Hydrated magnesium sulfate salts have been proposed as major components of the disrupted, reddish terrains on the surface of Europa. This is based on near-infrared reflectance spectra which contain distorted and asymmetric water absorption features typical of moderately hydrated materials such as hexahydrite (MgSO4ṡ6H2O) and epsomite (MgSO4ṡ7H2O). Hydrated magnesium sulfates having many waters of hydration could produce improved spectral matches. Here we present cryogenic laboratory spectra of highly hydrated sulfur-bearing salts, including hexahydrite, epsomite, bloedite (Na2Mg(SO4)2ṡ4H2O), mirabilite (Na2SO4ṡ10H2O), sodium sulfide nonahydrate (Na2Sṡ9H2O), supersaturated MgSO4, NaHCO3, and Na2SO4 brines, and magnesium sulfate dodecahydrate (MgSO4ṡ12H2O). All have been measured under conditions of pressure and temperature appropriate to the surface environment of Europa. Novel methods for preparation, verification and analysis of MgSO4ṡ12H2O, which is not stable at standard temperature and pressure (STP), are described. At 100 K, all of these materials exhibit distorted and asymmetric absorption features similar to those in the Europa observations, as well as several weaker, narrow absorptions having widths ranging from 15 to 80 nm. While the agreement with Galileo NIMS observations of dark terrains on Europa is indeed better for highly hydrated salts than for salts of lower hydration states, we conclude that none of these materials alone can account for all of the observed spectral character. As previously suggested, Europa's reddish material appears to be a complex mixture of sulfate hydrates and other materials.

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