Changes in Hawaiian palagonite FE mineralogy associated with thermal alteration: Implications for Mars

We have studied six Hawaiian palagonitic tephra samples (PH-1 through PH-6) from a site where a Mauna Loa lava flow has partially embayed a Mauna Kea cinder cone Tephra samples that were not affected by the lava flow (PH-5, PH-6) consist of partially palagonitized coarse-grained glassy Hawaiitic particles whose iron mineralogy is dominated by nanophase ferric oxide (np-Ox) and olivine. Samples closest to the lava flow (PH-1 through PH-4) have been strongly altered and their iron mineralogy is dominated by np-Ox, magnetite, and hematite. This suite of samples has many spectral similarities to Martian bright regions; thus, this localized thermal alteration event may be an analog to similar processes on Mars that lead to the production of small amounts of crystalline ferric oxides within a poorly-crystalline or amorphous palagonitic matrix.