Untangling Source-To-Sink Geochemical Signals in a ~3.5 Ga Martian Lake: Sedimentology and Geochemistry of the Murray FormationSedimentary rocks are historical archives of planetary surface processes; their grains, textures, and chemistry integrate the effects of source terrains, paleoclimatic conditions, weathering and transport processes, authigenic mineral precipitation, and diagenesis, which records groundwater chemistry through time. “Source to Sink” basin analysis seeks to constrain the influence of each of these different signals through sedimentary and geochemical analyses. Here, we use Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover images and geochemical and mineralogical data from a traverse across a portion of the Murray formation—the lowermost unit exposed in the Gale crater central mound—to begin to constrain the aspects of the source to sink system that formed this Martian mudstone between 3.7 and 3.2 Ga.
Document ID
20200001597
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Siebach, K. L. (Rice Univ. Houston, TX, United States)
Fedo, C. M. (Tennessee Univ. Knoxville, TN, United States)
Rampe, E. B. (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Grotzinger, J. P. (California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)
Thompson, L. M. (University of New Brunswick Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada)
O’Connell-Cooper, C. (University of New Brunswick Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada)
Edgar, L. E. (United States Geological Survey (USGS) Flagstaff, AZ, United States)
Fraeman, A. A. (Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)