Phosphate Stability in Diagenetic Fluids Constrains the Acidic Alteration Model for Lower Mt. Sharp Sedimentary Rocks in Gale Crater, Mars.

摘要

The Mars rover Curiosity has encountered silica-enriched bedrock (as strata and as veins and associated halos of alteration) in the largely basaltic Murray Fm. of Mt. Sharp in Gale Crater. Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) investigations of the Murray Fm. revealed decreasing Mg, Ca, Mn, Fe, and Al, and higher S, as silica increased (Fig. 1). A positive correlation between SiO2 and TiO2 (up to 74.4 and 1.7 wt %, respectively) suggests that these two insoluble elements were retained while acidic fluids leached more soluble elements. Other evidence also supports a silica-retaining, acidic alteration model for the Murray Fm., including low trace element abundances consistent with leaching, and the presence of opaline silica and jarosite determined by CheMin. Phosphate stability is a key component of this model because PO4 3- is typically soluble in acidic water and is likely a mobile ion in diagenetic fluids (pH less than 5). However, the Murray rocks are not leached of P; they have variable P2O5 (Fig. 1) ranging from average Mars (0.9 wt%) up to the highest values in Gale Crater (2.5 wt%). Here we evaluate APXS measurements of Murray Fm. bedrock and veins with respect to phosphate stability in acidic fluids as a test of the acidic alteration model for the Lower Mt. Sharp rocks.