Possible Clays near Margaritifer Chaos | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Possible Clays near Margaritifer Chaos | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

The term chaos is applied to regions where the surface is being eroded to form mesas separated by steep walled valleys. As the surface processes continue individual mesas become more isolated and take on the appearance of regions of hills. 

The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle covers the area from 0° to 45° west longitude and 0° to 30° south latitude on Mars. According to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) multispectral data, the exposures of light-toned materials (on small hills and between darker dunes) shows a strong iron-magnesium phyllosilicate (clay) signatures in this area. Phyllosilicates, or sheet silicates, are an important group of minerals that includes the micas, chlorite, serpentine, talc, and the clay minerals. The existence of clay minerals is especially interesting on Mars since we want to know under what conditions these minerals formed. Could it have been in the presence of water?

Image cutout is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 263 km (164 mi). 

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, to provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and to relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, and reached Mars on March 10, 2006. 

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) manages MRO for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Caltech, in Pasadena, manages JPL for NASA. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado. The Context Camera was built by, and is operated by, Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.

For more information on MRO, visit:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mro

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/mission/index.html

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Release Date: Sept. 24, 2024

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