Hi Donald
I have not read the paper, hopefully I have not jumped to any conclusions with respect to that. It would be interesting to know how strong the olivine signal is is. While strectroscopy can't tell you much is usually present in any quantitative way, the strength of the spectral curve for any specfic component, such as olvine gives you an idea qualtitatively of how much might be there. The SNC meteorites cover the range from olivine poor (basalt) to olivine rich (lherzolite), and most may well come from the Syrtis region that includes Nili Fossa.
I can only comment on the media releases. However, the information in them does not justify the conclusions drawn, for the reasons elucidated previously. We have been wrong before about Mars when we have drawn wide-reaching conclusions from limited data.
Cheers
Jon
Space/Science » in reply to Jumping to conclusions
re: Jumping to conclusions