Composition of weakly altered Martian crust

Abstract

The mineralogic and chemical composition of weakly altered crust remains an unresolved question for Mars. Dark regions hold clues to the composition since they are thought to comprise surface exposures of weakly altered crustal materials. Understanding the in situ composition of relatively pristine crustal rocks in greater detail is important for investigating basic volcanic processes. Also, this will provide additional constraints on the chemical pathways by which pristine rocks are altered to produce the observed ferric iron-bearing assemblages and inferred clay silicate, sulphate, and magnetic oxide phases. Reflectance spectra of dark regions obtained with the ISM instrument are being used to determine the basic mineralogy of weakly altered crust for a variety of regions on Mars