Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: "However, even rare events of liquid water formation would be significant since they would dominate the chemistry of the soil"

No, Bob.

Read my lips:-

"I strongly recommend the OMEGA/CRISM papers"

Go and read them AND LEARN FROM WHAT YOU READ.

The headline paper in the topic "Distribution and context of water-related Minerals on Mars" is an excellent and simple introduction.

The sulphates can clearly be dated to Hesperian and older times. The phylosilicates (clays etc) can clearly be dated to the Noachian.

Liquid water could NOT have been present at recent times to any appreciable degree or extent.

The next era, lasting
until now, is dry and cold; with an alteration at a
global scale dominated by gaseous oxidation in ferric
oxides of the surficial dust (“siderikian”). During these
two last eras, space and time localized events, triggered
by either impacts or transient obliquity changes,
might have injected water in the atmosphere and at the
surface, resulting in spectacular fluvial structures
without having hydrated the associated minerals.

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