I stumbled upon this while researching chemical (and radiologic) weathering processes. Potential Resources of Mars (3.5 meg .pdf) It's a series of 53 powerpoint slides from a recent lecture (#19) by Harrison Schmitt. I don't know what I think about all of it but I thought I'd pass it along for those who are interested. Arm waving? It's a little like watching a movie without the sound on, all you've got are the slides and no comments, but there are some interesting slides. And I like the presentation, mostly. Wish I could see and hear the actual lecture.

My comments on selected pages:

6: Been thinking about gypsum twins and some of the void geometries we are seeing.

8: Copper talk. Malachite? Yeah, it's blue too, and wasn't yet on my list. Shame on me.

9. Yeah, the graph shows a copper peak. So does Ni. Wait, sounds like Sudbury, the famous Ni-Cu deposit of Canada. Long argued as to its impact origins. Location of my deepest excursion into this planet (6000' below sea level).

I'm kidding. I think.

10. lots of silicates are Fe rich.

11. But what is that negative signal from the Dark Unit? What wavelength is that? How does that fit in with the color problem?

12. True about Jarosite. And it doesn't take an atmosphere or sea chock full o' acid to form it. It is an indicator weathering mineral found all the time in arid enviroments where sulfides are breaking down. The acid enviroment is in-situ, within the rock itself. Least on Earth. If I see Jarosite, the sample's gonna return many ppm of Fe and/or Cu.

Still thinking 'bout point 2

20. Can't wait to see the new data plotted on this graph.

22-23. Soil stuff. "carbonates apparently decomposed by UV radiation" (yeah, I'm still chasing that.)

28. Que bacteria slides...

29. Black Smoker! It's nice to see a picture of one that is not billions of years old, deformed, metamorphosed, recrystallized, obscured by biomass....

30. Que life on Mars slides...

Then mars travel photos.

Enjoy.