New Bright Stuff, Paso Robles 2 |
New Bright Stuff, Paso Robles 2 |
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#1
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![]() Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 578 Joined: 5-November 04 From: Denmark Member No.: 107 ![]() |
Looks like the new bright stuff churned up by Spirit has gotten the attention from the PI on Mount Itacha
![]() Spirit Front Hazcam Latest Steve update QUOTE So what is this new stuff (which we have named Arad)? The same kind of salt? Something different? Similar concentration or even saltier? It was too tempting a target to pass up, and we're going to spend the weekend doing IDD work on it before moving on.
-------------------- "I want to make as many people as possible feel like they are part of this adventure. We are going to give everybody a sense of what exploring the surface of another world is really like"
- Steven Squyres |
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#2
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Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 2998 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 ![]() |
It _is_ hard to figure out exactly what is going on here. But I think that your drawing board is still good, think of sulfates in various states of oxidation-reduction with different metals balancing out the SO4's. I've seen/heard of that happening in minespoil piles with pyrite oxidizing like mad til it sucks up all the O2, then it switches gears. Sulfates are important since they serve as an energy source for a class of microbes, the thiobacillus group. Ya gotta have food for bugs in the desert...
Still digging in my archives for colorful images. I _do_ need some sort of indexing system. --Bill -------------------- |
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#3
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![]() Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 136 Joined: 13-October 05 From: Malibu, CA Member No.: 527 ![]() |
QUOTE (Bill Harris @ Jan 15 2006, 03:32 AM) It _is_ hard to figure out exactly what is going on here. Sure is... I'm not much of a chemist, or geologist, just an avid rock-hound that's been tinkering at the hobby for about 50 years... I've seen stuff like this right here on good old terra firma quite often, and your comment on minespoil nails exactly where I've seen stuff like this. Typical content is just SiO2, and CaCO3, but the ‘pretty stuff’ is in metal oxides, primarily iron, aluminum, magnesium and lead - in that order of prominence. The zeolites and feldspars being what I’m after (crystalline forms of) - and this mars dig looks akin to Analcime - often a multicolored zeolite, but usually white. It's usually aluminum based, but with lead it goes multi-color. Wish they would publish more on what elements the spectrographic work shows... ![]() |
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#4
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![]() Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 723 Joined: 13-June 04 Member No.: 82 ![]() |
QUOTE (sattrackpro @ Jan 15 2006, 01:53 PM) slinted gave a link to a paper that goes into great detail on the results of 93 different APXS integrations, on the first page of this thread. Examples of several results from that paper (numbers in parenthesis are two-sigma errors): sol 14 Gusev soil (integration time 13.5 hours) Na2O: 2.8 % (0.3 %) MgO: 8.34 % (0.12 %) Al2O3: 9.89 % (0.14 %) SiO2: 46.3 % (0.5 %) P2O5: 0.87 % (0.08 %) SO3: 6.61 % (0.08 %) Cl: 0.78 % (0.02 %) K2O: 0.48 % (0.06 %) CaO: 6.36 % (0.05 %) TiO2: 0.86 % (0.07 %) Cr2O3: 0.31 % (0.03 %) MnO: 0.33 % (0.01 %) FeO: 16.0 % (0.11 %) Ni: 556 ppm (51 ppm) Zn: 293 ppm (18 ppm) Br: 31 ppm (17 ppm) sol 172 Pot of Gold RAT (integration time 5.0 hours) Na2O: 3.0 % (0.2 %) MgO: 9.91 % (0.13 %) Al2O3: 10.32 % (0.13 %) SiO2: 42.9 % (1.4 %) P2O5: 1.08 % (0.08 %) SO3: 7.96 % (0.10 %) Cl: 0.57 % (0.01 %) K2O: 0.20 % (0.06 %) CaO: 5.86 % (0.05 %) TiO2: 0.77 % (0.07 %) Cr2O3: 0.27 % (0.03 %) MnO: 0.24 % (0.01 %) FeO: 16.7 % (0.12 %) Ni: 894 ppm (52 ppm) Zn: 112 ppm (13 ppm) Br: 77 ppm (17 ppm) sol 401 PasoRobles disturbed soil (integration time 2.7 hours): Na2O: 1.6 % (0.2 %) MgO: 5.53 % (0.09 %) Al2O3: 4.13 % (0.07 %) SiO2: 21.8 % (0.3 %) P2O5: 5.61 % (0.14 %) SO3: 31.7 % (0.30 %) Cl: 0.55 % (0.02 %) K2O: 0.19 % (0.06 %) CaO: 6.84 % (0.06 %) TiO2: 0.62 % (0.07 %) Cr2O3: 0.04 % (0.03 %) MnO: 0.25 % (0.01 %) FeO: 21.0 % (0.12 %) Ni: 109 ppm (49 ppm) Zn: 98 ppm (18 ppm) Br: 494 ppm (26 ppm) Bill |
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#5
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![]() Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150 ![]() |
Hey, Spirit is working on this stuff also after "local Sunset"!
![]() (Sol 723, enhanced brightness, crossed eyes) -------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -
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