Geomorphology of Gale Crater, Rock on! |
Geomorphology of Gale Crater, Rock on! |
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#1
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![]() Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 ![]() |
I'd like a discussion thread about the geology detatched from the time limits of current MSL threads. We had a 'Geomorphology of Cape York' thread that attracted a lot of interesting posts. How about 'Geomorphology of Gale Crater'? I have one or two ideas but many more questions, and I'd like to post them in a longer-running thread away from the day to day imaging discussion. Any other takers?
For starters, does anybody have a contour map of this place like the one at Meridiani with 5m intervals? ADMIN: You have your wishes fulfilled on UMSF (sometimes) ![]() |
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#2
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Junior Member ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 11-August 12 Member No.: 6536 ![]() |
I still like the spring mound idea.
The rover is currently seeing a lot of rocks which look spongy and porous. What if there is a thick layer of such rock underlying Gale Crater? In wet, high atmospheric pressure climates these rocks would fill up with water, creating a large aquifer. Then the atmospheric pressure drops quickly, due to carbon dioxide freezing out at the poles. The drop in pressure reduces the boiling point of water, and the water in the aquifer starts to boil. The porous beds slope upwards towards the center of the crater, so the warmer less dense fluids migrate in that direction. They erupt from Mt Sharp, leaving behind an evaporite deposit. The chemistry of the evaporite depends on the chemistry of Martian water and the atmosphere at the time. When the atmosphere was rich in sulfur dioxide, sulphates were formed. More recently, another mineral, maybe carbonates was deposited. Martian winds have eroded Mt Sharp over time, giving the deposits an aeolian appearance. The lowest clay bearing layers might be old lakebed deposits which were covered and protected from erosion by later materials. Mt Sharp could be the result of a long history of oscillations in atmospheric pressure which alternately filled an aquifer and then dropped the pressure enough to boil it. |
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