Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: paulanderson Jul 30 2006, 04:47 AM

Extensive deposits of very bright material in this new Odyssey image released July 28, 2006; more sulfate deposits? Ice?

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20060728a

Posted by: Myran Jul 30 2006, 06:39 AM

This material are not found in the terrain in a way suggesting its ice, secondly this location are only at 30,9 degrees north so very unlikely its ice.

As for sulphate containing minerals, yes this could be something like whats been found in Meridiani.
But again, did Mars have a global set of conditions such as the proposed idea it was strongly acidic in the later part of the wet epoc with corresponding mineral formation.
And if that's so we have one explanation why carbonates are so rare, at least near the surface, older geological strata could of course be quite diferent.
Then on the other hand did Mars have areas where the chemistry and minerals formation were different like on Earth?

Well the instruments on the orbiters might give one answer, there are a few spots where the brighter material are more common and none I can see where it is continous in any widerspread area.
But if they took one measurement to the the side of this location, and then one smack on the brigher material. Then I guess it might be possible to weed out the data from 'ordinary' surface material and minerals and get a peek of what the composition might be.

Posted by: Bill Harris Jul 30 2006, 12:56 PM

That spot is on the edge of the Hellas Basin and it might be anything: windblown, water-borne or evaporite. But so near the edge of this basin I'd suspect sedimentary.

--Bill

Posted by: Myran Jul 30 2006, 02:01 PM

Ooops! Rereading the page it states a minus there but in my screen the sign showed above the numbers so I missed that! -30.9N,83.0E
Silly of the Arizonia university fooling me like that: The location are at 30,9 S and nothing else!