One geologic dot on a map labeled "SRF", Sulfate Rich Rock? That's not a map, it's a beginning. This is not a stake in the heart of any reasoned model.
If this the result of flluid alteration processes, it is sure to be zoned: vertically and horizontally, mineralogically and elementally. The succession of evaporite minerals is pretty distict and predictable. At least on earth. There could be beaucoup carbonates in the lower stratigraphy. Lets take those readings and get over to that crater!
This could also be a hydrothemal overprint. A last gasp of a small amount of water. What does you model say about a mixture of H2O and CO2?
Oh, this, IMHO, is not an altered basalt ash fall/flow. Those are cross beds. I've seen enough raw images to be convinced. Ripples, too. But wind or fluid based? Not my specialty. Aeolean dunes are usually taller than these, but there are alot of bedform morphologies I have to review. Looks a little like the Kayaneta (sp?)Formation in the Colorado National Monument, cross-bed wise.
Aloha Hawii, do you have cross-bedded basalts in that rock wall o' yours? Altered by sulfates?
I've got my geochem book here in may lap (a course of study I tolerate) and I'm looking at phase diagrams of S and CO and I'm trying to digest it. But I'm off skiing in the morning...gotta take a break...rant at the snow covered trees for awhile...
...don't shoot the horse!...
Space/Science » in reply to Jarosite and CO2
one outcrop does not a planet make.
The whole thread (40 posts)
- "liquid water once drenched the surface" (Opportunity site). WOW! LIVENASATV news announcements on now folks. (n/t)
- A virtual toast with my bottle of Perrier :-)
- re: Samples
- We should be careful that the evidence so far is conclusive of ground water not surface water
- About Jarosite
- If It Looks Like A Duckand and Wobbles Like A Duck
- When Squyres said; Opportunity's landing was a hole in one, he wasn't kidding. Cheers to this outstanding MER mission (n/t)
- Thank God for the internet connection to NASA TV
- You beat me to it.... (n/t)