Calcium Sulfates at Gale Crater and Limitations on Gypsum Stability

The Mars Science Laboratory rover has been exploring sedimentary rocks of the Bradbury group and overlying Murray formation, as well as the unconformably overlying Stimson formation. Early in exploration, and continuing to present, there have been observations of many Ca-sulfate veins that cut all t...

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Published inNASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI). Conference Proceedings
Main Authors Vantiman, D T, Martinez, G M, Morris, R V, Crisp, J A, Rampe, E B, Bristow, T F, Blake, D F, Yen, A H, Ming, D W, Rapin, W, Meslin, P -Y, Morookian, J M
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published Hampton NASA/Langley Research Center 20.03.2017
Subjects
Calcium sulfate
Crystal structure
Curiosity (Mars rover)
Dehydration
Gypsum
Mars craters
Mars rovers
Mineralogy
Organic chemistry
Sedimentary rocks
Stratigraphy
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Summary:The Mars Science Laboratory rover has been exploring sedimentary rocks of the Bradbury group and overlying Murray formation, as well as the unconformably overlying Stimson formation. Early in exploration, and continuing to present, there have been observations of many Ca-sulfate veins that cut all three stratigraphic units. The CheMin XRD instrument on Curiosity provides complete mineralogy for drilled or scooped samples, with explicit identification of gypsum, bassanite, and anhydrite (crystal structure of so-called "soluble anhydrite," or gamma-CaSO4, is so similar to bassanite that it can't be distinguished at CheMin 2-theta resolution; here we refer to these similar dehydrated forms simply as bassanite).