Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Wopmay

Hydrothermal overtones
jms — (archived)

Sounds like a good name for a rock band!

In some of the orbital images that have been posted (I'm remembering that 3D one Marcia posted several months ago) there is a sedimentary layer stratigraphically above this thick sulfate unit (I'm purposely avoiding a genetic vocabulary here). Doesn't this imply that the present topography has nothing to do with the depositional topography of the sulfate unit? Unless, of course, the sulfates are an alteration product of a preexisting lithology. Which seems to display fluid-related bedforms.

I'm all for your model, Nick. One big question is: during eposodic orbital warmings, and the associated seepage of liquid, how much fluid accumulated in local/regional topographic basins. How deep did it get? Another on my mind is how this seepage can be compared to the warm water brines that form Sed-Ex deposits. This might be a better analogy than "hydrothermal" systems, which I tend to catagorize as much higher temperature processes.

One of the best lines of support for your model is the observation by the JPL team that the cross-beds are a mixture of aeolean and "water" related environments. This shows the cyclic nature of fluid in this environment. An observation that has been over-looked by many, IMHO. There may have been hundreds (thousands) of cycles of wet-dry conditions that deposited/reworked the sulfate unit.

Do you know if anyone has given a formal formation name to this rock unit? Or a formal rock name (hematite bearing jarosite-gypsumite? - again avoiding genitic terms) ?

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