Abstract
Mössbauer spectroscopy of surface rocks, soil, and dust on Mars from the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) suggests that the mineral olivine is widespread on the surface. Detection of the mineral by near-IR optical spectroscopy from Martian orbit indicates that it is found in relatively small isolated outcrops concentrated in the floors and rims of craters distributed around the ancient cratered highlands of Mars. To shed light on this apparent paradox, we have performed a detailed Mössbauer and visible-near-IR (VNIR) investigation of dust generated from Icelandic olivine basalt, which is a good Mössbauer analogue to the igneous rocks at Gusev crater on Mars. The results show that the amount of olivine relative to pyroxene can be underestimated by almost an order of a magnitude in VNIR reflectance spectra, most probably because of the longer effective optical path length in pyroxene compared to olivine.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hoefen, T.M., Clark, R.N., Bandfield, J.L., Smith, M.D., Pearl, J.C., Christensen, P.R.: Discovery of olivine in the nili fossae region of Mars. Science 302, 627–630 (2003)
Stopar, J.D., Taylora, G.J., Hamiltona, V.E., Browning, L.: Kinetic model of olivine dissolution and extent of aqueous alteration on Mars. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 70, 6136–6152 (2006)
Mustard, J.F., Poulet, F., Gendrin, A., Bibring, J.P., Langevin, Y., Gondet, B., Mangold, N., Bellucci, G., Altieri, F.: Olivine and pyroxene diversity in the crust of Mars. Science 307, 1594–1597 (2005)
Morris, R.V., Klingelhöfer, G., Schröder, C., Rodionov, D.S., Yen, A., Ming, D.W., de Souza, P.A. Jr., Fleischer, I., Wdowiak, T., Gellert, R., Bernhardt, B., Evlanov, E.N., Zubkov, B., Foh, J., Bonnes, U., Kankeleit, E., Gütlich, P., Renz, F., Squyres, S.W., Arvidson, R.E.: Mössbauer mineralogy of rock, soil, and dust at Gusev crater, Mars: spirit’s journey through weakly altered olivine basalt on the plains and pervasively altered basalt in the Columbia Hills. J. Geophys. Res. 111, E02S13 (2006). doi:10.1029/2005JE002584
Goetz, W., Bertelsen, P., Binau, C.S., Gunnlaugsson, H.P., Hviid, S.F., Kinch, K.M., Knudsen, J.M., Madsen, D.E., Madsen, M.B., Olsen, M., Gellert, R., Klingelhöfer, G., Ming, D.W., Morris, R.V., Rieder, R., Rodionov, D.S., de Souza, P.A. Jr., Schröder, C., Squyres, S.W., Wdowiak, T., Yen, A.: Chemistry and mineralogy of atmospheric dust at Gusev crater. Indication of dryer periods on Mars. Nature 436, 62–65 (2005)
Bertelsen, P., Madsen, M.B., Binau, C.S., Goetz, W., Gunnlaugsson, H.P., Hviid, S.F., Kinch, K.M., Klingelhöfer, G., Leer, K., Madsen, D.E., Merrison, J., Olsen, M., Squyres, S.W.: Backscattering Mössbauer spectroscopy of Martian dust. Hyperfine Interact. 166, 523–527 (2005)
Morris, R.V., Klingelhöfer, G., Bernhardt, B., Schröder, C., Rodionov, D.S., de Souza, P.A. Jr., Yen, A., Gellert, R., Evlanov, E.N., Foh, J., Kankeleit, E., Gütlich, P., Ming, D.W., Renz, F., Wdowiak, T., Squyres, S.W., Arvidson, R.E.: Mineralogy at Gusev crater from the Mössbauer spectrometer on the spirit rover. Science 305, 833–836 (2004)
Rasmussen, H., Gunnlaugsson, H.P., Tegner, C., Kristjánsson, L.: Magnetic properties of Martian olivine basalts studied by Terrestrial analogues. Hyperfine Interact. 166, 561–566 (2005)
Stevens, J.G., Khasanov, A.M., Miller, J.W., Pollak, H., Li, Z. (eds.): Mössbauer Mineral Handbook, Mössbauer Effect Data Center (1998)
Kanner, L.C., Mustard, J.F., Gendrin, A.: Assessing the limits of the modified Gaussian model for remote spectroscopic studies of pyroxenes on Mars. Icarus 187, 442–456 (2007)
Watt, I.M.: The Principles and Practice of Electron Microscopy, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Great Britain (1997)
Klein, C., Hurlbut, C.S. Jr.: Manual of Mineralogy, 21st edn. Wiley, USA (1993)
Sunshine, J.M., Pieters, C.M., Pratt, S.F.: Deconvolution of mineral absorption bands: an improved approach. Geophys. Res. 95, 6955–6966 (1990)
Orofino, V., Politi, R., Blanco, A., Fonti, S.: Diffuse reflectance of altered olivine grains: remote sensing detection and implications for Mars studies. Planet. Space Sci. 54, 784–793 (2006)
Pieters, C.M.: Compositional diversity and stratigraphy of the lunar crust derived from reflectance spectroscopy. In: Pieters, C.M., Englert, P.A.J. (eds.) Remote Geochemical Analysis: Elemental and Mineralogical Composition, pp. 309–339. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK (1993)
De Grave, E., Van Alboom, A.: Evaluation of ferrous and ferric Mössbauer fractions. Phys. Chem. Miner. 18, 337–342 (1991)
Singer, R.B.: Near-infrared spectral reflectance of mineral mixtures: systematic combinations of pyroxenes, olivine, and iron oxides. J. Geophys. Res. 86, 7967–7982 (1981)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mølholt, T.E., Gunnlaugsson, H.P., Merrison, J.P. et al. Mössbauer and VNIR study of dust generated from olivine basalt: application to Mars. Hyperfine Interact 186, 127–133 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-008-9842-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-008-9842-2