[X] My Assistant

[dvandorn]

As we all know, Martian meteorite ALH84001 has interesting structures that have now been debated endlessly as to their origins. The more interesting point, however, is that these structures occur within carbonate inclusions in the rock.

Carbonate Martian rocks have generally not been found from orbit by remote sensing equipment. And in ALH84001, the carbonate "nuggets" are rather tiny inclusions.

If there *are* carbonate rocks on Mars, how the heck do we find them? And if they tend to exist merely as tiny inclusions in other rocks, how do we analyze them (or even see that they're there) in situ?

-the other Doug

[marsbug]

B. For a given range of estimates of (A.) above, how much carbonate rock would have to have been emplaced and subsequently eroded into dust to account for the total mass? (i.e., are we talking about massive deposits from large ocean beds, or small emplacements in scattered lakes and small seas? Or just a few scattered crater lakes here and there?)

Well if the six percent figure is typical of martian soils (although I suspect it's not or we would have seen it before?) I imagine there must have been a lot. If the impactor that made heimdall just happened to bullseye, or near bullseye, a carbonate deposit from ancient times would that produce carbonate particles in the soil like phoenix sees? Or would the effects of the impact alter the carbonates?
I wonder if there are any impact craters on earth that are known to have hit carbonate deposits for comparison.