Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

Mars Odyssey Mineral Maps

Apologies for the delay, I had to do some serious work to get these from the inconsistent mess that the Odyssey GRS team released.

I haven't included the images, for bandwidth reasons but those of you interested in Mars may find them useful.

IMHO, these are dramatically more useful than the original Odyssey team images that just had sparse contours. Here, you see the context of the "splodges" of element distribution.

Topography
Iron
Silicon
Potassium
Thorium

My observations from the images:

Iron

Fe is high in dusty lowlying areas around Elysium and in proximal "flood" areas (compare to Thorium in distal "flood" areas. I suggest that we are seeing the preferential deposit of those igneous boulders on the surface in these areas.

Silicon

Si is high in some highland areas, and around Arsia Mons - the big volcano in North Tharsis. Other Tharsis and Elysium volcanoes are low Si.

Si is unusually low in East Hellas, near the large "flood" channels there

Potassium

K is low in Hellas, Argyre and other flat-lying upland areas. Also low in the broad shield volcanoes (paterae) of Syrtis and Hesperia

High K vaguely tracks the crustal dichotomy, and is especially high in northern Chryse

Thorium

Th is concentrated in lowlying northern plains such as Chryse, where outwash floods have travelled, but NOT in other similar areas SE of Elysium. Very low Th around the "core" of Valles Marineris

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