Mineralogical Characterization of a Potential Mars-Analog Field Site: Gypsum- and Carbonate-Bearing Formations in the Quebradas Back Country, New Mexico, USA

The Quebradas Back Country field site is located approximately six miles east of Socorro, NM, USA and provides access to Pennsylvanian and Permian age sedimentary formations that record environments ranging from lacustrine to hypersaline supratidal mudflats in deposits of carbonate, sulfate, and clay minerals. These deposits demonstrate a critical climate transition from cold and wet to largely arid conditions, which may parallel the drying of ancient Mars. The Quebradas sulfate and carbonate deposits can provide insight into the formation and weathering of Mars-relevant sulfates and elucidate potential causes for the prevalence of calcium sulfate and paucity of calcium carbonate on Mars. Deciphering the environmental cues held within evaporites is particularly timely now with mounting evidence for sulfate-rich fluids in Jezero crater and the Curiosity rover analyzing the sulfate-bearing unit in Gale crater.