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Tag Archives: clay minerals
Opportunity explores aluminum-bearing site
With its solar panels their cleanest in years, NASA’s decade-old Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is inspecting a section of crater-rim ridgeline chosen as a priority target due to evidence of a water-related mineral. Orbital observations of the site by another … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged aluminum phyllosilicates, aluminum-hydroxyl clays, clay minerals, clays, Endeavour Crater, Mars Exploration Rover, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MER, montmorillonites, Murray Ridge, NASA, Opportunity, Pillinger Point, smectites, Solander Point
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CRISM: Iron-magnesium clays in Libya Montes
This image is located right along the rim of the Isidis impact basin, at the foot of Libya Montes. Here we see the interaction between olivine (red) and iron-magnesium phyllosilicates (green). The group of olivine minerals is known to have … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged clay minerals, Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, CRISM, Libya Montes, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, NASA, phyllosilicates
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Hardened arteries in Nili and Nilo
Water seeping through conduits and cracks in the deep subsurface rocks of Nilosyrtis and Nili Fossae left behind minerals, like hard-water deposits that collect in the plumbing of your house. (Or cholesterol in your arteries.) Then as the softer rocks … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged clay minerals, cracks, CTX, Curiosity, fractures, Gale Crater, groundwater, gypsum, HiRISE, Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MSL, Nili Fossae, Nilosyrtis, Opportunity, phyllosilicates, water
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Ancient Mars biosphere: deep underground?
Something like half of Earth’s entire biomass lies underground in the form of microorganisms living off geothermal heat and chemicals in the crustal rocks. Could the same hold true for Mars, now or in bygone times? If so, it’s hard … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged biosphere, carbonate minerals, clay minerals, CRISM, groundwater, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, McLaughlin Crater, MGS, microorganisms, TES, THEMIS, Thermal Emission Spectrometer
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Changing times in Syrtis Major
Early Mars appears to have been highly unlike today, being warmer and wetter. To find out why and how the environment changed, scientists look for inflection points in Martian history, where one geological regime gives way to another. A report … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged clay minerals, CRISM, Isidis Planitia, lava, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, olivine, phyllosilicates, Syrtis Major
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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
Posted in Reports
Tagged clay minerals, climate change, CRISM, HiRISE, HRSC, hydrated minerals, Noctis Labyrinthus, opal, phyllosilicates, silicates, sulfates, Tharsis
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Did ice and dust make layered deposits in Valles Marineris?
Vast mounds of layered material lie in numerous places throughout the giant canyon system of Valles Marineris, and especially in Candor Chasma, Ophir Chasma, and Melas Chasma. The origin of these “interior layered deposits” (ILDs) have been debated since they … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, Candor Chasma, clay minerals, climate change, dust, ice, ILDs, interior layered deposits, Melas Chasma, Ophir Chasma, sulfates, Valles Marineris
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Phoenix lander soil: dry for a long, long time
NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft landed on the high northern plains of Mars. Among its instruments were optical and atomic-force microscopes. A team of scientists led by Tom Pike (Imperial College, London) used these to measure the size and number of particles … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged clay minerals, Heimdal Crater, Phoenix lander, soil, water, wind
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Martian surface: icy, cold, and dry for 4 billion years
Maybe the warm and wet environment on early Mars that scientists have long proposed wasn’t at the surface, but rather buried in the crust. That’s one of the conclusions of a new review that looks at Martian clay minerals and … Continue reading