Minerals (May 2024)
The Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) X-ray Diffractometer on the MSL Curiosity Rover: A Decade of Mineralogy from Gale Crater, Mars
- David Blake,
- Valerie Tu,
- Thomas Bristow,
- Elizabeth Rampe,
- David Vaniman,
- Steve Chipera,
- Philippe Sarrazin,
- Richard Morris,
- Shaunna Morrison,
- Albert Yen,
- Robert Downs,
- Robert Hazen,
- Allan Treiman,
- Douglas Ming,
- Gordon Downs,
- Cherie Achilles,
- Nicholas Castle,
- Tanya Peretyazhko,
- David De Marais,
- Patricia Craig,
- Barbara Lafuente,
- Benjamin Tutolo,
- Elisabeth Hausrath,
- Sarah Simpson,
- Richard Walroth,
- Michael Thorpe,
- Johannes Meusburger,
- Aditi Pandey,
- Marc Gailhanou,
- Przemyslaw Dera,
- Jeffrey Berger,
- Lucy Thompson,
- Ralf Gellert,
- Amy McAdam,
- Catherine O’Connell-Cooper,
- Brad Sutter,
- John Michael Morookian,
- Abigail Fraeman,
- John Grotzinger,
- Kirsten Siebach,
- Soren Madsen,
- Ashwin Vasavada
Affiliations
- David Blake
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94043, USA
- Valerie Tu
- Jacobs JETSII, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- Thomas Bristow
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94043, USA
- Elizabeth Rampe
- NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- David Vaniman
- Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Steve Chipera
- Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Philippe Sarrazin
- SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
- Richard Morris
- NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- Shaunna Morrison
- Carnegie Institute for Science, Washington, DC 20015, USA
- Albert Yen
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Robert Downs
- Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Robert Hazen
- Carnegie Institute for Science, Washington, DC 20015, USA
- Allan Treiman
- The Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- Douglas Ming
- NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- Gordon Downs
- SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
- Cherie Achilles
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Nicholas Castle
- Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Tanya Peretyazhko
- Jacobs JETSII, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- David De Marais
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94043, USA
- Patricia Craig
- Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Barbara Lafuente
- SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
- Benjamin Tutolo
- University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
- Elisabeth Hausrath
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
- Sarah Simpson
- NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- Richard Walroth
- Genetech, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA
- Michael Thorpe
- Goddard Space Flight Center/CRESST II, University of Maryland, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Johannes Meusburger
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94043, USA
- Aditi Pandey
- NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- Marc Gailhanou
- CNRS, IM2NP, 13397 Marseille, France
- Przemyslaw Dera
- University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
- Jeffrey Berger
- Jacobs JETSII, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- Lucy Thompson
- University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, Canada
- Ralf Gellert
- Department of Physics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
- Amy McAdam
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Catherine O’Connell-Cooper
- University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, Canada
- Brad Sutter
- Jacobs JETSII, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA
- John Michael Morookian
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Abigail Fraeman
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- John Grotzinger
- Division of Geologic and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Kirsten Siebach
- Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
- Soren Madsen
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Ashwin Vasavada
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/min14060568
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 14,
no. 6
p. 568
Abstract
For more than a decade, the CheMin X-ray diffraction instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, has been returning definitive and quantitative mineralogical and mineral–chemistry data from ~3.5-billion-year-old (Ga) sediments in Gale crater, Mars. To date, 40 drilled rock samples and three scooped soil samples have been analyzed during the rover’s 30+ km transit. These samples document the mineralogy of over 800 m of flat-lying fluvial, lacustrine, and aeolian sedimentary rocks that comprise the lower strata of the central mound of Gale crater (Aeolis Mons, informally known as Mt. Sharp) and the surrounding plains (Aeolis Palus, informally known as the Bradbury Rise). The principal mineralogy of the sedimentary rocks is of basaltic composition, with evidence of post-depositional diagenetic overprinting. The rocks in many cases preserve much of their primary mineralogy and sedimentary features, suggesting that they were never strongly heated or deformed. Using aeolian soil composition as a proxy for the composition of the deposited and lithified sediment, it appears that, in many cases, the diagenetic changes observed are principally isochemical. Exceptions to this trend include secondary nodules, calcium sulfate veining, and rare Si-rich alteration halos. A surprising and yet poorly understood observation is that nearly all of the ~3.5 Ga sedimentary rocks analyzed to date contain 15–70 wt.% of X-ray amorphous material. Overall, this >800 m section of sedimentary rock explored in lower Mt. Sharp documents a perennial shallow lake environment grading upward into alternating lacustrine/fluvial and aeolian environments, many of which would have been habitable to microbial life.
Keywords
- powder X-ray diffraction
- Mars
- extraterrestrial mineralogy
- Mars science laboratory
- <i>Curiosity</i> rover
