P31A-2034
MSL SAM-like Analyses of Hawaiian Altered Basaltic Materials: Implications for Analyses by the Mars Science Laboratory

Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Amy McAdam1, Jennifer L. Eigenbrode2, Kelsey E Young2,3, Jacob E Bleacher4, Christine A Knudson2,3, Deanne Rogers5, Timothy D Glotch5, Brad Sutter6, Paul R Mahaffy1 and Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez7, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Planetary Environments Laboratory, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (4)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)Stony Brook University, Geosciences, Stony Brook, NY, United States, (6)Jacobs Technology, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, United States, (7)Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Laboratorio de Química de plasmas y Estudios Planetarios, Mexico City, Mexico
Abstract:
Samples of basaltic materials were collected during several traverses of the Kau Desert on the leeward side of the Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, conducted by the Remote, In Situ, and Synchrotron Studies for Science and Exploration (RIS4E) team, a node of the Solar System Exploration and Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) program. Some of these samples had been exposed to circumneutral to slightly acidic alteration conditions from exposure to fog/rain, and acidic fog/rain, while others had been exposed to more acidic conditions due to proximity to fumaroles. The samples consisted of basalts with coatings, sands and soils, and ash, and were collected using organically clean protocols to enable investigation of organic chemistry and organic-mineral associations, in addition to mineralogy.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover has analyzed basaltic materials inferred to have been altered under conditions ranging from circumneutral to acidic, but several aspects of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite results are still being investigated and analyses of relevant terrestrial analogs can play an important role in interpretation of the data. For example, all materials analyzed to date have a significant amorphous component. Comparisons of the mineralogy obtained with the MSL CheMin instrument and volatiles evolved during SAM analyses indicate that, by mass balance, some portion of the volatiles, such as SO2 and H2O, are likely associated with this component. Many of the RIS4E samples also have a significant amorphous component, and field x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) data indicate differences in the chemistry of this material in samples exposed to different alteration conditions. Preliminary SAM-like analyses indicate that the amorphous materials in some of these samples evolve volatiles such as H2O and SO2 during heating. Here we will discuss these results, and others, obtained through SAM-like analyses of selected samples.

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