In Situ Evidence for an Ancient Aqueous Environment at Meridiani Planum, Mars
By S. Squyres, John P. Grotzinger, R. Arvidson, James F. Bell III, W. Calvin, Philip R. Christensen, B. Clark, J. Crisp, W. Farrand, K. Herkenhoff and 9 more. Science, 2004
966 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Sedimentary rocks at Eagle crater in Meridiani Planum are composed of fine-grained siliciclastic materials derived from weathering of basaltic rocks, sulfate minerals (including magnesium sulfate and jarosite) that constitute several tens of percent of the rock by weight, and hematite. Cross-stratification observed in rock outcrops indicates eolian and aqueous transport. Diagenetic features include hematite-rich concretions and crystal-mold vugs. We interpret the rocks to be a mixture of chemical and siliciclastic sediments with a complex diagenetic history. The environmental conditions that they record include episodic inundation by shallow surface water, evaporation, and desiccation. The geologic record at Meridiani Planum suggests that conditions were suitable for biological activity for a period of time in martian history.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Paleontology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/46921aae97cff08c4c25f94fa0828cb60b00f293
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In Astronomy and Astrophysics
- John P. Grotzinger
- Ralph E. Milliken
- F. McCubbin
- Bethany L. Ehlmann
- Alison R. Santos
- P. Srinivasan
- Andrew Steele
- Kevin P. Hand
In Paleontology
Citations in the corpus
- The Sedimentary Rock Record of Mars: Distribution, Origins, and Global Stratigraphy (2012, methodology): “…the ;7-km traverse from Eagle to Endurance to Erebus to Victoria craters, outcrops were observed and studied systematically using the rover payload (Squyres et al. 2004; Grotzinger et al. 2005, 2006; Metz et al. 2009b; Squyres et al. 2009; Hayes et al. 2011; Edgar et al. [this volume]); the bulk…”
- Astrobiology: The Study of the Living Universe (2005, background): “The landing of the two Mars Exploration Rovers has greatly expanded our understanding of the liquid water history of Mars (MER 2004, Squyres et al. 2004b).”
- Heterogeneous distribution of H2O in the Martian interior: Implications for the abundance of H2O in depleted and enriched mantle sources (2016, background): “…observations indicate, indisputably, that liquid water once flowed on the surface of Mars (Farmer et al. 1976; Hartmann 1979; Carr 1996; Baker 2001; Squyres et al. 2004; Haskin et al. 2005; McSween 2006; McEwen et al. 2007; Mustard et al. 2008; Smith et al. 2009; Ehlmann et al. 2011; Grotzinger et…”
- The rayed crater Zunil and interpretations of small impact craters on Mars (2005, background): “FLDs at the MER Opportunity region of Meridian Planum have been interpreted as “dirty” evaporites, in enced by a combination of fluvial, eolian, and volca processes(Squyres et al., 2004; Klingelhofer et al., 200.”