Hi, dtb.

I know Nick hasn't answered you yet, but since I'm here now I have to ask about the recent discovery of salts along the equator:

[This CRISM image of a bright gully deposit was constructed by showing 2.53, 1.50, and 1.08 micrometer light in the red, green, and blue image planes. CRISM can just resolve the deposits (highlighted by arrows in the inset), which are only a few tens of meters (about 150 feet) across. The spectrum of the deposits barely differs from that of the surrounding material, and is just a little brighter. This difference could simply be explained by a slightly greater content of dust than in the surrounding soil. In contrast, older deposits elsewhere on Mars ( such as Valles Marineris) that do contain hydrated salts have distinctive spectral features near 1.9 and 3.0 microns. The gully deposits lack these features, and exhibit no evidence for water-deposited salts. Just-published HiRISE images of this and other bright gully deposits do not rule out water, but they do suggest that the bright deposits could also have formed by dust that slid downslope and accumulated in the gullies.]

Mars Daily: No Mineral Trace Of Liquid Water.

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[Liquid water found flowing on Mars? Not Yet.]

[The image on the left is a portion of a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment image showing a bright streak in a gully on the side of a crater in the Centauri Montes region of Mars. The two colored images were generated by the researchers' numerical computer model. The middle image shows how a deposit left by a pure liquid water flood would appear in the gully. The right-hand streak shows the deposit that would be left by a dry debris flow. Only the model for the dry debris flow generated the same fingering as seen in the HiRISE image. Credit: Jon Pelletier, UA]

From: http://www.physorg.com/news123491857.html

I understand the analogy with Earth, but it has to be taken into account that water not only boils/dissipates/disappears on Mars quickly but that any liquid must also and should act quite differently in an environment that has less gravity. I'm not saying that the features were made by water specifically and absolutely they could have been made by solids, but wouldn't 'water' behave differently on Mars as opposed to Earth? Regardless, if the feature/s were made by liquid water, as short lived as that may have been, would salts have had a chance to form, leave its print (regarding gullies)?

Oh, well-fwiw, anyways... it's good to see you, dtb and I'm glad YOU're still pursuing geology.