CaltechAUTHORS
Published September 28, 2018 | Version Supplemental Material + Published
Journal Article Open

Sand Mineralogy Within the Bagnold Dunes, Gale Crater, as Observed In Situ and From Orbit

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Johnson Space Center
  • 2. ROR icon Harvard University
  • 3. ROR icon Ames Research Center
  • 4. ROR icon Washington University in St. Louis
  • 5. ROR icon University of Arizona
  • 6. ROR icon Planetary Science Institute
  • 7. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 8. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab
  • 9. ROR icon Purdue University West Lafayette
  • 10. ROR icon Lunar and Planetary Institute
  • 11. ROR icon Arizona State University
  • 12. ROR icon University of Guelph
  • 13. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 14. ROR icon Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Abstract

Curiosity investigated active eolian sands near linear dunes during Phase 2 of the Bagnold Dunes campaign in Gale crater, Mars. Ogunquit Beach, a sample scooped from a large‐ripple trough within the Mount Desert Island ripple field and delivered to the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) X‐ray diffraction instrument, is dominated by basaltic igneous minerals and X‐ray amorphous materials. CheMin mineralogy of the Gobabeb sample acquired at a large‐ripple crest on the Namib barchan dune during Phase 1 is similar to Ogunquit Beach. Ogunquit Beach, however, contains more plagioclase and Gobabeb contains more olivine. Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM)‐based estimates of mineralogy at the optical surface of Namib Dune and Mount Desert Island demonstrate that surface sands are enriched in olivine and depleted in plagioclase over Mount Desert Island relative to Namib Dune. Differences between CheMin‐derived and CRISM‐derived mineralogies suggest sorting by grain size on bedform to dune field scales. Crystal chemistry from CheMin suggests contributions from multiple igneous sources and the local bedrock.

Additional Information

© 2018 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Issue Online: 19 October 2018; Version of Record online: 27 September 2018; Accepted manuscript online: 29 August 2018; Manuscript accepted: 23 August 2018; Manuscript revised: 20 August 2018; Manuscript received: 07 June 2018. We gratefully acknowledge support from the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Mission and the MSL engineering and science teams for executing the Bagnold Dunes campaign. We thank Kevin Cannon and Kim Seelos for their thoughtful reviews of this manuscript. Mission data (i.e., collected by CheMin, APXS, and CRISM) supporting the conclusions can be obtained from the Planetary Data System Geosciences Node. Additional data supporting the conclusions are found in the supporting information. This manuscript is dedicated to Nathan Bridges, who helped design this campaign and whose passion and enthusiasm are dearly missed.

Attached Files

Published - 2018GL079073.pdf

Supplemental Material - grl57950-sup-0001-2018gl079073-si.docx

Supplemental Material - grl57950-sup-0002-2018gl079073-ts01.xlsx

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
105215
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20200902-122307515

Funding

NASA

Dates

Created
2020-09-08
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)