Tag Archives: hydrated minerals

Clays greased long landslides in Valles Marineris

Beds of clays and hydrated silicate minerals on the floor of Valles Marineris made it easy for landslides there to flow long distances, according to a new paper published online in Geology. The work, done by a team of scientists … Continue reading

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CRISM: Hydrated minerals near Nili Fossae

This image shows a site near Nili Fossae, a group of long, narrow tectonic depressions called graben. Mars’ crust is mostly made up of igneous rock and mafic materials, shown here with red denoting olivine. There are also aqueously-altered minerals … Continue reading

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Nakhla meteorite: newly found mineral features

A new ovoid structure discovered in the Nakhla Martian meteorite is made of nanocrystalline iron-rich clay, contains a variety of minerals, and shows evidence of undergoing a past shock event from impact, with resulting melting of the permafrost and mixing … Continue reading

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CRISM: Mafic minerals in Nili Fossae

The vast majority of the planet’s crust is unaltered igneous rock although there are some occurrences of aqueously altered rocks linked to past water activity. The colors here show concentrations of different minerals common in rocks that might tell us … Continue reading

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Mars mineral bonanza?

If you could go to only one location on Mars, where would you find the most complete assortment of known Martian minerals? A new report, with lead author Patrick Thollot (Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique, CNRS), in the Journal of … Continue reading

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