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THIS PROPOSAL OUTLINES A THREE PRONG RESEARCH PLAN TO ASSESS THE NATURE OF THE PRIMARY MARTIAN CRUST AND HOW IT HAS BEEN MODIFIED BY SECONDARY VOLCANIC PROCESSES. AS THE VARIOUS ROBOTIC MISSIONS EXPLORE THE SURFACE OF MARS IT IS IMPERATIVE TO ESTABLISH THE GEOLOGIC CONTEXT OF ROCK TYPES ENCOUNTERED ALONG THEIR TRAVERSES. WE HAVE LEARNED THAT MARS WAS ONCE WARM AND WET NOT UNLIKE MODERN EARTH AND POTENTIALLY HABITABLE [AGEE ET AL. 2013; ARVIDSON ET AL. 2014; BIBRING ET AL. 2006; GROTZINGER ET AL. 2014; POLLACK 1987; SQUYRES ET AL. 2012]. CLASSIFYING THE PRECURSOR ROCKS WILL HELP US ASSESS THE NATURE OF THE PRIMARY MARTIAN CRUST AND HOW IT HAS BEEN MODIFIED BY SECONDARY VOLCANIC PROCESSES. THE GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO QUANTITATIVELY UNDERSTAND: HOW THE DIFFERENT MARTIAN VOLCANIC ROCKS ARE RELATED? STARTING WITH THE COMPOSITIONAL DATA FROM THE ALPHA PARTICLE X-RAY SPECTROMETER (APXS) ONBOARD THE OPPORTUNITY ROVER (AVAILABLE IN THE PLANETARY DATA SYSTEM) I WILL ADDRESS QUESTIONS SUCH AS: HOW DO THE ENDEAVOUR VOLCANIC ROCKS RELATE TO THE PRECURSOR BASALTIC MATERIALS THAT WERE PRESUMABLY ALTERED TO BECOME PRECURSOR MATERIALS TO THE MERIDIANI SANDSTONE OR SHOEMAKER FORMATION BRECCIA? ALSO IF THERE WERE VOLCANIC ROCKS IN THE TARGET AREA OF ENDEAVOUR CRATER THEY WOULD BE OLDER VOLCANIC ROCKS THAN THE SHERGOTTITE METEORITES AND I WILL CHARACTERIZE WHAT THE EARLY VOLCANIC DIVERSITY WAS LIKE ON MARS IN THIS REGION. THEN I WILL EXPAND MY EXAMINATION TO INCLUDE COMPOSITIONAL DATA FROM THE OTHER ROVERS TO ADDRESS: HOW DO THE ENDEAVOUR CRATER BASALTS COMPARE TO VOLCANIC ROCKS DISCOVERED AT OTHER SITES (GUSEV CRATER - SPIRIT GALE CRATER - CURIOSITY)? FINALLY BY DRAWING ON THE EXISTING COMPOSITIONAL DATA SETS OF MARTIAN METEORITES I WILL INVESTIGATE OTHER COMPONENTS OF PRIMARY MARTIAN CRUST AND ADDRESS THE QUESTION: HOW WELL DOES THE MARTIAN METEORITE SUITE REPRESENT THE DIVERSITY OF THE OBSERVED PRIMARY MARTIAN CRUST? APPLYING THE STATISTICAL TOOLS OF HIERARCHICAL CLUSTERING (HC) AND AN ERROR-WEIGHTED CHI-SQUARED SIMILARITY INDEX (SI) ON THE LARGE APXS AND MARTIAN METEORITE COMPOSITIONAL DATA SETS ESTABLISHES A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO ANALYZING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SPECIFIC ROCKS AND ROCK GROUPS. USING THESE TECHNIQUES COUPLED WITH TEXTURAL ANALYSIS USING PANCAM AND MI IMAGES I WILL TEST HYPOTHESES ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS ROCK MEMBER PRECURSORS AND POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS ON THE SURFACE OF MARS AND MARTIAN METEORITES.

$82,140FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

Washington University, The

Investigators

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THIS PROPOSAL OUTLINES A THREE PRONG RESEARCH PLAN TO ASSESS THE NATURE OF THE PRIMARY MARTIAN CRUST AND HOW IT HAS BEEN MODIFIED BY SECONDARY VOLCANIC PROCESSES. AS THE VARIOUS ROBOTIC MISSIONS EXPLORE THE SURFACE OF MARS IT IS IMPERATIVE TO ESTABLISH THE GEOLOGIC CONTEXT OF ROCK TYPES ENCOUNTERED ALONG THEIR TRAVERSES. WE HAVE LEARNED THAT MARS WAS ONCE WARM AND WET NOT UNLIKE MODERN EARTH AND POTENTIALLY HABITABLE [AGEE ET AL. 2013; ARVIDSON ET AL. 2014; BIBRING ET AL. 2006; GROTZINGER ET AL. 2014; POLLACK 1987; SQUYRES ET AL. 2012]. CLASSIFYING THE PRECURSOR ROCKS WILL HELP US ASSESS THE NATURE OF THE PRIMARY MARTIAN CRUST AND HOW IT HAS BEEN MODIFIED BY SECONDARY VOLCANIC PROCESSES. THE GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO QUANTITATIVELY UNDERSTAND: HOW THE DIFFERENT MARTIAN VOLCANIC ROCKS ARE RELATED? STARTING WITH THE COMPOSITIONAL DATA FROM THE ALPHA PARTICLE X-RAY SPECTROMETER (APXS) ONBOARD THE OPPORTUNITY ROVER (AVAILABLE IN THE PLANETARY DATA SYSTEM) I WILL ADDRESS QUESTIONS SUCH AS: HOW DO THE ENDEAVOUR VOLCANIC ROCKS RELATE TO THE PRECURSOR BASALTIC MATERIALS THAT WERE PRESUMABLY ALTERED TO BECOME PRECURSOR MATERIALS TO THE MERIDIANI SANDSTONE OR SHOEMAKER FORMATION BRECCIA? ALSO IF THERE WERE VOLCANIC ROCKS IN THE TARGET AREA OF ENDEAVOUR CRATER THEY WOULD BE OLDER VOLCANIC ROCKS THAN THE SHERGOTTITE METEORITES AND I WILL CHARACTERIZE WHAT THE EARLY VOLCANIC DIVERSITY WAS LIKE ON MARS IN THIS REGION. THEN I WILL EXPAND MY EXAMINATION TO INCLUDE COMPOSITIONAL DATA FROM THE OTHER ROVERS TO ADDRESS: HOW DO THE ENDEAVOUR CRATER BASALTS COMPARE TO VOLCANIC ROCKS DISCOVERED AT OTHER SITES (GUSEV CRATER - SPIRIT GALE CRATER - CURIOSITY)? FINALLY BY DRAWING ON THE EXISTING COMPOSITIONAL DATA SETS OF MARTIAN METEORITES I WILL INVESTIGATE OTHER COMPONENTS OF PRIMARY MARTIAN CRUST AND ADDRESS THE QUESTION: HOW WELL DOES THE MARTIAN METEORITE SUITE REPRESENT THE DIVERSITY OF THE OBSERVED PRIMARY MARTIAN CRUST? APPLYING THE STATISTICAL TOOLS OF HIERARCHICAL CLUSTERING (HC) AND AN ERROR-WEIGHTED CHI-SQUARED SIMILARITY INDEX (SI) ON THE LARGE APXS AND MARTIAN METEORITE COMPOSITIONAL DATA SETS ESTABLISHES A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO ANALYZING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SPECIFIC ROCKS AND ROCK GROUPS. USING THESE TECHNIQUES COUPLED WITH TEXTURAL ANALYSIS USING PANCAM AND MI IMAGES I WILL TEST HYPOTHESES ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS ROCK MEMBER PRECURSORS AND POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS ON THE SURFACE OF MARS AND MARTIAN METEORITES. · GrantIndex