Detection of Gray Crystalline Hematite in the Aureum and Iani Chaos Layered Terrains

Mathematics – Logic

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5410 Composition (1060, 3672), 5464 Remote Sensing, 5470 Surface Materials And Properties, 6225 Mars

Scientific paper

Using the TES and THEMIS datasets, small hematite-rich deposits have been discovered in Aureum and Iani Chaos. The newly discovered hematite-rich deposits share several similarities with the deposit in Aram Chaos [1], including the occurrence of hematite in a friable layered unit, and the presence of a light-toned caprock. The presence of these units over a distance of several hundred kilometers in the equatorial latitudes of Mars may point to a preferred global mechanism for hematite formation. However, it is unclear how, if at all, these units are related to the hematite- and sulfate-rich unit in Meridiani Planum, which is substantially larger and older (by as much as 1 Ga) than the layered units seen in the equatorial chaotic terrains. Though the caprock units in Aram Chaos and Aureum Chaos are similar, the corresponding unit in Iani Chaos is morphologically different, exhibiting less of a cliff-forming erosional pattern. The hematite-rich units in Aram and Aureum Chaos lie stratigraphically below the light-toned caprock units. In Iani Chaos, the hematite deposit is coincident with the light-toned unit. Data returned from the Mars Express OMEGA instrument have shown the presence of hydrated sulfates in the hematite-rich units associated with Aram and Iani Chaos, although to date, no sulfate detection has been reported in Aureum Chaos [2]. The sequence of caprock and hematite units in Aram, Aureum, and Iani Chaos probably did not form coincidentally as part of an extensive regional layer, but instead formed by similar, but not identical, processes in their respective chaotic terrains. The presence of these units in chaotic terrains, which have been hypothesized to form by subsidence after the release of subsurface water, indicate that these units may have been deposited in an aqueous environment. By analogy to Meridiani Planum, later subsurface aqueous activity in the region of the chaotic terrains may have provided the necessary diagenetic conditions for the formation of hematite within the layered units. [1] Glotch and Christensen, J. Geophys. Res., in press. [2] Gendrin et al., 2005, Science, 307 p. 1587-1590

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