2013/09/26 by Pierre‐Yves Meslin, O. Gasnault, O. Forni +97 · 5 citations
Chemistry · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Amorphous solid #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrobiology #Chemistry #Environmental chemistry #Geochemistry #Geology #Impact crater #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Mafic #Mars Exploration Program #Martian #Martian surface #Mineralogy #Physics #Planetary Science and Exploration #Regolith #Soil science #Soil water
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1238670
openalex publication_date 2013/09/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
The ChemCam instrument, which provides insight into martian soil chemistry at the submillimeter scale, identified two principal soil types along the Curiosity rover traverse: a fine-grained mafic type and a locally derived, coarse-grained felsic type. The mafic soil component is representative of widespread martian soils and is similar in composition to the martian dust. It possesses a ubiquitous hydrogen signature in ChemCam spectra, corresponding to the hydration of the amorphous phases found in the soil by the CheMin instrument. This hydration likely accounts for an important fraction of the global hydration of the surface seen by previous orbital measurements. ChemCam analyses did not reveal any significant exchange of water vapor between the regolith and the atmosphere. These observations provide constraints on the nature of the amorphous phases and their hydration.