The potassic sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater, Mars, as seen by ChemCam on board Curiosity: Potassic Sedimentary Rocks, Gale Crater
Abstract
The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity encountered potassium-rich clastic sedimentary rocks at two sites in Gale Crater, the waypoints Cooperstown and Kimberley. These rocks include several distinct meters thick sedimentary outcrops ranging from fine sandstone to conglomerate, interpreted to record an ancient fluvial or fluvio-deltaic depositional system. Furthermore, from ChemCam Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) chemical analyses, this suite of sedimentary rocks has an overall mean K2O abundance that is more than 5 times higher than that of the average Martian crust. The combined analysis of ChemCam data with stratigraphic and geographic locations then reveals that the mean K2O abundance increases upward through the stratigraphic section. Chemical analyses across each unit can be represented as mixtures of several distinct chemical components, i.e., mineral phases, including K-bearing minerals, mafic silicates, Fe-oxides, and Fe-hydroxide/oxyhydroxides. Possible K-bearing minerals include alkali feldspar (including anorthoclase and sanidine) and K-bearing phyllosilicate such as illite. Mixtures of different source rocks, including a potassium-rich rock located on the rim and walls of Gale Crater, are the likely origin of observed chemical variations within each unit. Physical sorting may have also played a role in the enrichment in K in the Kimberley formation. The occurrence of these potassic sedimentary rocksmore »
- Authors:
-
more »
- Univ. of Nantes (CNRS-UMR) (France). Lab. of Planetology and Geodynamics
- Inst. for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology, Toulouse (France)
- Inst. for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology, Toulouse (France). Inst. of Optical Sensor Systems
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States). Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Univ. of Lorraine, Nancy (France). GeoRessources
- California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab.
- U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ (United States). Astrogeology Science Center
- Lyon Lab. of Geology (France)
- Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States). College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
- California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Division of Geologic and Planetary Sciences
- Imperial College London, London (United Kingdom)
- Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique, LPG-Nantes, UMR CNRS 6112, Université de Nantes, Nantes France
- State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Stony Brook, NY (United States). Dept. of Geosciences
- Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Inst. of Meteroritics
- Western Washington Univ., Bellingham, WA (United States). Geology Dept.
- Natural Museum of History, Paris (France). Lab. of Mineralogy & Cosmochemistry of the Museum (LMCM)
- Lunar and Planetary Inst., Houston TX (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1417817
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-17-27707
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-9097
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research. Planets
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 121; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-9097
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES; Planetary Sciences
Citation Formats
Le Deit, L., Mangold, N., Forni, O., Cousin, A., Lasue, J., Schröder, S., Wiens, R. C., Sumner, D., Fabre, C., Stack, K. M., Anderson, R. B., Blaney, D., Clegg, S., Dromart, G., Fisk, M., Gasnault, O., Grotzinger, J. P., Gupta, S., Lanza, N., Le Mouélic, S., Maurice, S., McLennan, S. M., Meslin, P. -Y., Nachon, M., Newsom, H., Payré, V., Rapin, W., Rice, M., Sautter, V., and Treiman, A. H.. The potassic sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater, Mars, as seen by ChemCam on board Curiosity: Potassic Sedimentary Rocks, Gale Crater. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1002/2015JE004987.
Le Deit, L., Mangold, N., Forni, O., Cousin, A., Lasue, J., Schröder, S., Wiens, R. C., Sumner, D., Fabre, C., Stack, K. M., Anderson, R. B., Blaney, D., Clegg, S., Dromart, G., Fisk, M., Gasnault, O., Grotzinger, J. P., Gupta, S., Lanza, N., Le Mouélic, S., Maurice, S., McLennan, S. M., Meslin, P. -Y., Nachon, M., Newsom, H., Payré, V., Rapin, W., Rice, M., Sautter, V., & Treiman, A. H.. The potassic sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater, Mars, as seen by ChemCam on board Curiosity: Potassic Sedimentary Rocks, Gale Crater. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JE004987
Le Deit, L., Mangold, N., Forni, O., Cousin, A., Lasue, J., Schröder, S., Wiens, R. C., Sumner, D., Fabre, C., Stack, K. M., Anderson, R. B., Blaney, D., Clegg, S., Dromart, G., Fisk, M., Gasnault, O., Grotzinger, J. P., Gupta, S., Lanza, N., Le Mouélic, S., Maurice, S., McLennan, S. M., Meslin, P. -Y., Nachon, M., Newsom, H., Payré, V., Rapin, W., Rice, M., Sautter, V., and Treiman, A. H.. Fri .
"The potassic sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater, Mars, as seen by ChemCam on board Curiosity: Potassic Sedimentary Rocks, Gale Crater". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JE004987. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1417817.
@article{osti_1417817,
title = {The potassic sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater, Mars, as seen by ChemCam on board Curiosity: Potassic Sedimentary Rocks, Gale Crater},
author = {Le Deit, L. and Mangold, N. and Forni, O. and Cousin, A. and Lasue, J. and Schröder, S. and Wiens, R. C. and Sumner, D. and Fabre, C. and Stack, K. M. and Anderson, R. B. and Blaney, D. and Clegg, S. and Dromart, G. and Fisk, M. and Gasnault, O. and Grotzinger, J. P. and Gupta, S. and Lanza, N. and Le Mouélic, S. and Maurice, S. and McLennan, S. M. and Meslin, P. -Y. and Nachon, M. and Newsom, H. and Payré, V. and Rapin, W. and Rice, M. and Sautter, V. and Treiman, A. H.},
abstractNote = {The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity encountered potassium-rich clastic sedimentary rocks at two sites in Gale Crater, the waypoints Cooperstown and Kimberley. These rocks include several distinct meters thick sedimentary outcrops ranging from fine sandstone to conglomerate, interpreted to record an ancient fluvial or fluvio-deltaic depositional system. Furthermore, from ChemCam Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) chemical analyses, this suite of sedimentary rocks has an overall mean K2O abundance that is more than 5 times higher than that of the average Martian crust. The combined analysis of ChemCam data with stratigraphic and geographic locations then reveals that the mean K2O abundance increases upward through the stratigraphic section. Chemical analyses across each unit can be represented as mixtures of several distinct chemical components, i.e., mineral phases, including K-bearing minerals, mafic silicates, Fe-oxides, and Fe-hydroxide/oxyhydroxides. Possible K-bearing minerals include alkali feldspar (including anorthoclase and sanidine) and K-bearing phyllosilicate such as illite. Mixtures of different source rocks, including a potassium-rich rock located on the rim and walls of Gale Crater, are the likely origin of observed chemical variations within each unit. Physical sorting may have also played a role in the enrichment in K in the Kimberley formation. The occurrence of these potassic sedimentary rocks provides additional evidence for the chemical diversity of the crust exposed at Gale Crater.},
doi = {10.1002/2015JE004987},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research. Planets},
number = 5,
volume = 121,
place = {United States},
year = {2016},
month = {5}
}
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