Back to Search Start Over

Microscopic Views of Martian Soils and Evidence for Incipient Diagenesis

Authors :
Goetz, W
Madsen, M. B
Bridges, N
Clark, B
Edgett, K. S
Fisk, M
Grotzinger, J. P
Hviid, S. F
Meslin, P.-Y
Ming, D. W
Newsom, H
Sullivan, R
Vaniman, D
Wiens, R
Publication Year :
2014
Publisher :
United States: NASA Center for Aerospace Information (CASI), 2014.

Abstract

Mars landed missions returned im-ages at increasingly higher spatial resolution (Table 1). These images help to constrain the microstructure of Martian soils, i.e. the grain-by-grain association of chemistry and mineralogy with secondary properties, such as albedo, color, magnetic properties, and mor-phology (size, shape, texture). The secondary charac-teristics are controlled by mineralogical composition as well as the geo-setting (transport and weathering modes, e.g. water supply, pH, atmospheric properties, exposure to radiation, etc.). As of today this association is poorly constrained. However, it is important to un-derstand soil-forming processes on the surface of Mars. Here we analyze high-resolution images of soils re-turned by different landed missions. Eventually these images must be combined with other types of data (chemistry and mineralogy at small spatial scale) to nail down the microstructure of Martian soils.

Details

Language :
English
Database :
NASA Technical Reports
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsnas.20140009563
Document Type :
Report