Publication Date:
2013-09-28
Description:
The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity scooped samples of soil from the Rocknest aeolian bedform in Gale crater. Analysis of the soil with the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) x-ray diffraction (XRD) instrument revealed plagioclase (~An57), forsteritic olivine (~Fo62), augite, and pigeonite, with minor K-feldspar, magnetite, quartz, anhydrite, hematite, and ilmenite. The minor phases are present at, or near, detection limits. The soil also contains 27 +/- 14 weight percent x-ray amorphous material, likely containing multiple Fe(3+)- and volatile-bearing phases, including possibly a substance resembling hisingerite. The crystalline component is similar to the normative mineralogy of certain basaltic rocks from Gusev crater on Mars and of martian basaltic meteorites. The amorphous component is similar to that found on Earth in places such as soils on the Mauna Kea volcano, Hawaii.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bish, D L -- Blake, D F -- Vaniman, D T -- Chipera, S J -- Morris, R V -- Ming, D W -- Treiman, A H -- Sarrazin, P -- Morrison, S M -- Downs, R T -- Achilles, C N -- Yen, A S -- Bristow, T F -- Crisp, J A -- Morookian, J M -- Farmer, J D -- Rampe, E B -- Stolper, E M -- Spanovich, N -- MSL Science Team -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Sep 27;341(6153):1238932. doi: 10.1126/science.1238932.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. bish@indiana.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24072925" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
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Chemistry and Pharmacology
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Computer Science
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Medicine
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Natural Sciences in General
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Physics
