CaltechAUTHORS
Published August 28, 2014 | Version Supplemental Material + Published
Journal Article Open

High manganese concentrations in rocks at Gale crater, Mars

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 3. ROR icon University of New Mexico
  • 4. ROR icon Astrogeology Science Center
  • 5. ROR icon Space Science Institute
  • 6. ROR icon University of Guelph
  • 7. ROR icon Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes
  • 8. ROR icon Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology
  • 9. ROR icon Brock University
  • 10. ROR icon Western University
  • 11. ROR icon Arizona State University
  • 12. ROR icon Delaware State University
  • 13. ROR icon National Museum of Natural History

Abstract

The surface of Mars has long been considered a relatively oxidizing environment, an idea supported by the abundance of ferric iron phases observed there. However, compared to iron, manganese is sensitive only to high redox potential oxidants, and when concentrated in rocks, it provides a more specific redox indicator of aqueous environments. Observations from the ChemCam instrument on the Curiosity rover indicate abundances of manganese in and on some rock targets that are 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than previously observed on Mars, suggesting the presence of an as-yet unidentified manganese-rich phase. These results show that the Martian surface has at some point in time hosted much more highly oxidizing conditions than has previously been recognized.

Additional Information

© 2014 American Geophysical Union. Received 29 April 2014; Accepted 13 July 2014; Accepted article online 18 July 2014; Published online 25 August 2014. The data reported here are archived at the Planetary Data System, available at http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/msl/index.htm. This research was carried out with funding from NASA's Mars Program Office and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France. We are grateful to Bradley Tebo and an anonymous reviewer for providing valuable feedback. The Editor thanks Bradley Tebo and an anonymous reviewer for their assistance in evaluating this paper.

Attached Files

Published - grl51938.pdf

Supplemental Material - 2014GL060329fA04.pdf

Supplemental Material - 2014GL060329ts01.xlsx

Supplemental Material - 2014GL060329ts02.xlsx

Supplemental Material - Lanza_auxiliaryinfo_README.docx

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
51436
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20141107-111618504

Funding

NASA
Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES)

Dates

Created
2014-11-07
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-10
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)