C. N. Achilles

Sedimentary rocks at Yellowknife Bay (Gale crater) on Mars include mudstone sampled by the Curiosity rover. The samples, John Klein and Cumberland, contain detrital basaltic minerals, calcium sulfates, iron oxide or hydroxides, iron sulfides, amorphous material, and trioctahedral smectites. The John Klein smectite has basal spacing of ~10 angstroms, indicating little interlayer hydration. The Cumberland smectite has basal spacing at both ~13.2 and ~10 angstroms. The larger spacing suggests a partially chloritized interlayer or interlayer magnesium or calcium facilitating H2O retention. Basaltic minerals in the mudstone are similar to those in nearby eolian deposits. However, the mudstone has far less Fe-forsterite, possibly lost with formation of smectite plus magnetite. Late Noachian/Early Hesperian or younger age indicates that clay mineral formation on Mars extended beyond Noachian time.

The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity scooped samples of soil from the Rocknest aeolian bedform in Gale crater. Analysis of the soil with the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) x-ray diffraction (XRD) instrument revealed plagioclase (~An57), forsteritic olivine (~Fo62), augite, and pigeonite, with minor K-feldspar, magnetite, quartz, anhydrite, hematite, and ilmenite. The minor phases are present at, or near, detection limits. The soil also contains 27 ± 14 weight percent x-ray amorphous material, likely containing multiple Fe(3+)- and volatile-bearing phases, including possibly a substance resembling hisingerite. The crystalline component is similar to the normative mineralogy of certain basaltic rocks from Gusev crater on Mars and of martian basaltic meteorites. The amorphous component is similar to that found on Earth in places such as soils on the Mauna Kea volcano, Hawaii.

The Rocknest aeolian deposit is similar to aeolian features analyzed by the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) Spirit and Opportunity. The fraction of sand <150 micrometers in size contains ~55% crystalline material consistent with a basaltic heritage and ~45% x-ray amorphous material. The amorphous component of Rocknest is iron-rich and silicon-poor and is the host of the volatiles (water, oxygen, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and chlorine) detected by the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument and of the fine-grained nanophase oxide component first described from basaltic soils analyzed by MERs. The similarity between soils and aeolian materials analyzed at Gusev Crater, Meridiani Planum, and Gale Crater implies locally sourced, globally similar basaltic materials or globally and regionally sourced basaltic components deposited locally at all three locations.

The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover has been traversing strata at the base of Aeolis Mons (informally known as Mount Sharp) since September 2014. The Murray formation makes up the lowest exposed strata of the Mount Sharp group and is composed primarily of finely laminated lacustrine mudstone intercalated with rare crossbedded sandstone that is prodeltaic or fluvial in origin. We report on the first three drilled samples from the Murray formation, measured in the Pahrump Hills section. Rietveld refinements and FULLPAT full pattern fitting analyses of X-ray diffraction patterns measured by the MSL CheMin instrument provide mineral abundances, refined unit-cell parameters for major phases giving crystal chemistry, and abundances of X-ray amorphous materials. Our results from the samples measured at the Pahrump Hills and previously published results on the Buckskin sample measured from the Marias Pass section stratigraphically above Pahrump Hills show stratigraphic variations in the mineralogy; phyllosilicates, hematite, jarosite, and pyroxene are most abundant at the base of the Pahrump Hills, and crystalline and amorphous silica and magnetite become prevalent higher in the succession. Some trace element abundances measured by APXS also show stratigraphic trends; Zn and Ni are highly enriched with respect to average Mars crust at the base of the Pahrump Hills (by 7.7 and 3.7 times, respectively), and gradually decrease in abundance in stratigraphically higher regions near Marias Pass, where they are depleted with respect to average Mars crust (by more than an order of magnitude in some targets). The Mn stratigraphic trend is analogous to Zn and Ni, however, Mn abundances are close to those of average Mars crust at the base of Pahrump Hills, rather than being enriched, and Mn becomes increasingly depleted moving upsection. Minerals at the base of the Pahrump Hills, in particular jarosite and hematite, as well as enrichments in Zn, Ni, and Mn, are products of acid-sulfate alteration on Earth. We hypothesize that multiple influxes of mildly to moderately acidic pore fluids resulted in diagenesis of the Murray formation and the observed mineralogical and geochemical variations. The preservation of some minerals that are highly susceptible to dissolution at low pH (e.g., mafic minerals and fluorapatite) suggests that acidic events were not long-lived and that fluids may not have been extremely acidic (pH&gt;2). Alternatively, the observed mineralogical variations within the succession may be explained by deposition in lake waters with variable Eh and/or pH, where the lowermost sediments were deposited in an oxidizing, perhaps acidic lake setting, and sediments deposited in the upper Pahrump Hills and Marias Pass were deposited lake waters with lower Eh and higher pH.