X-Ray Amorphous Phases in Antarctica Dry Valley Soils: Insight into Aqueous Alteration Processes on Mars?
The Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument onboard the Mars Curiosity rover has detected abundant amounts (approx. 25-30 weight percentage) of X-ray amorphous materials in a windblown deposit (Rocknest) and in a sedimentary mudstone (Cumberland and John Klein) in Gale crater, Mars. On Earth, X...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20150018578 2023-05-15T13:35:23+02:00 X-Ray Amorphous Phases in Antarctica Dry Valley Soils: Insight into Aqueous Alteration Processes on Mars? Morris, R. V. Golden, D. C. Ming, D. W. Quinn, J. E. Rampe, E. B. Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available December 14, 2015 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150018578 unknown Document ID: 20150018578 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150018578 Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright CASI Earth Resources and Remote Sensing Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration JSC-CN-34194 AGU 2015: Fall American Geophysical Union Meeting; 14-18 Dec. 2015; San Francisco, CA; United States 2015 ftnasantrs 2019-07-21T00:03:41Z The Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument onboard the Mars Curiosity rover has detected abundant amounts (approx. 25-30 weight percentage) of X-ray amorphous materials in a windblown deposit (Rocknest) and in a sedimentary mudstone (Cumberland and John Klein) in Gale crater, Mars. On Earth, X-ray amorphous components are common in soils and sediments, but usually not as abundant as detected in Gale crater. One hypothesis for the abundant X-ray amorphous materials on Mars is limited interaction of liquid water with surface materials, kinetically inhibiting maturation to more crystalline phases. The objective of this study was to characterize the chemistry and mineralogy of soils formed in the Antarctica Dry Valleys, one of the driest locations on Earth. Two soils were characterized from different elevations, including a low elevation, coastal, subxerous soil in Taylor Valley and a high elevation, ultraxerous soil in University Valley. A variety of techniques were used to characterize materials from each soil horizon, including Rietveld analysis of X-ray diffraction data. For Taylor Valley soil, the X-ray amorphous component ranged from about 4 weight percentage in the upper horizon to as high as 15 weight percentage in the lowest horizon just above the permafrost layer. Transmission electron microscopy indicated that the presence of short-range ordered (SRO) smectite was the most likely candidate for the X-ray amorphous materials in the Taylor Valley soils. The SRO smectite is likely an aqueous alteration product of mica inherited from granitic materials during glaciation of Taylor Valley. The drier University Valley soils had lower X-ray amorphous contents of about 5 weight percentage in the lowest horizon. The X-ray amorphous materials in University Valley are attributed to nanoparticles of TiO2 and possibly amorphous SiO2. The high abundance of X-ray amorphous materials in Taylor Valley is surprising for one of the driest places on Earth. These materials may have been physically and chemical altered during soil formation, however, the limited interaction with water and low temperatures may result in the formation of "immature" X-ray amorphous or SRO materials. Perhaps, a similar process contributes to the formation of the high content of X-ray amorphous materials detected on Mars. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctica permafrost NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Taylor Valley ENVELOPE(163.000,163.000,-77.617,-77.617) University Valley ENVELOPE(160.667,160.667,-77.867,-77.867) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
op_collection_id |
ftnasantrs |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration |
spellingShingle |
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration Morris, R. V. Golden, D. C. Ming, D. W. Quinn, J. E. Rampe, E. B. X-Ray Amorphous Phases in Antarctica Dry Valley Soils: Insight into Aqueous Alteration Processes on Mars? |
topic_facet |
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration |
description |
The Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument onboard the Mars Curiosity rover has detected abundant amounts (approx. 25-30 weight percentage) of X-ray amorphous materials in a windblown deposit (Rocknest) and in a sedimentary mudstone (Cumberland and John Klein) in Gale crater, Mars. On Earth, X-ray amorphous components are common in soils and sediments, but usually not as abundant as detected in Gale crater. One hypothesis for the abundant X-ray amorphous materials on Mars is limited interaction of liquid water with surface materials, kinetically inhibiting maturation to more crystalline phases. The objective of this study was to characterize the chemistry and mineralogy of soils formed in the Antarctica Dry Valleys, one of the driest locations on Earth. Two soils were characterized from different elevations, including a low elevation, coastal, subxerous soil in Taylor Valley and a high elevation, ultraxerous soil in University Valley. A variety of techniques were used to characterize materials from each soil horizon, including Rietveld analysis of X-ray diffraction data. For Taylor Valley soil, the X-ray amorphous component ranged from about 4 weight percentage in the upper horizon to as high as 15 weight percentage in the lowest horizon just above the permafrost layer. Transmission electron microscopy indicated that the presence of short-range ordered (SRO) smectite was the most likely candidate for the X-ray amorphous materials in the Taylor Valley soils. The SRO smectite is likely an aqueous alteration product of mica inherited from granitic materials during glaciation of Taylor Valley. The drier University Valley soils had lower X-ray amorphous contents of about 5 weight percentage in the lowest horizon. The X-ray amorphous materials in University Valley are attributed to nanoparticles of TiO2 and possibly amorphous SiO2. The high abundance of X-ray amorphous materials in Taylor Valley is surprising for one of the driest places on Earth. These materials may have been physically and chemical altered during soil formation, however, the limited interaction with water and low temperatures may result in the formation of "immature" X-ray amorphous or SRO materials. Perhaps, a similar process contributes to the formation of the high content of X-ray amorphous materials detected on Mars. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Morris, R. V. Golden, D. C. Ming, D. W. Quinn, J. E. Rampe, E. B. |
author_facet |
Morris, R. V. Golden, D. C. Ming, D. W. Quinn, J. E. Rampe, E. B. |
author_sort |
Morris, R. V. |
title |
X-Ray Amorphous Phases in Antarctica Dry Valley Soils: Insight into Aqueous Alteration Processes on Mars? |
title_short |
X-Ray Amorphous Phases in Antarctica Dry Valley Soils: Insight into Aqueous Alteration Processes on Mars? |
title_full |
X-Ray Amorphous Phases in Antarctica Dry Valley Soils: Insight into Aqueous Alteration Processes on Mars? |
title_fullStr |
X-Ray Amorphous Phases in Antarctica Dry Valley Soils: Insight into Aqueous Alteration Processes on Mars? |
title_full_unstemmed |
X-Ray Amorphous Phases in Antarctica Dry Valley Soils: Insight into Aqueous Alteration Processes on Mars? |
title_sort |
x-ray amorphous phases in antarctica dry valley soils: insight into aqueous alteration processes on mars? |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150018578 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(163.000,163.000,-77.617,-77.617) ENVELOPE(160.667,160.667,-77.867,-77.867) |
geographic |
Taylor Valley University Valley |
geographic_facet |
Taylor Valley University Valley |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica permafrost |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica permafrost |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20150018578 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150018578 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
_version_ |
1766065100731449344 |