JGR-Planets (Special Section - Results From the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity Mission) Options

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The first paper (Jerolmack et al.) in a series of papers for a special issue of JGR-Planets (Special Section - Results From the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity Mission) has just been published online.

[Bill Harris]

Yes, all of the above. This mineralogy no longer whispers 'wet', it yells WATER.

The interesting find to me is the Nontronite, an iron-rich smectite (clay mineral) derived from the weathering of basalt. Not only is it another mineral that relates to a wet environment, it also has a biological tie-in. Nontronite been found to be a source for iron in the metabolism of iron- and sulfate-reducing bacteria.

I'm not a big bugs-and-bunnies sort, but many early micro-organisms on Earth were likely iron- and sulfate-reducing organisms, the iron and sulfates are too much of an energy source in an anaerobic environment to ignore.

--Bill