Diagenetic silica enrichment and late-stage groundwater activity in Gale crater, Mars

J. Frydenvang (1, 2) , P. J. Gasda (1) , J. A. Hurowitz (3) , J. P. Grotzinger (4) , R. C. Wiens (1) , H. E. Newsom (5) , K. S. Edgett (6) , J. Watkins (4) , J. C. Bridges (7) , S. Maurice (8) , M. R. Fisk (9) , J. R. Johnson (10) , W. Rapin (4) , N. T. Stein (4) , S. M. Clegg (1) , S. P. Schwenzer (11) , C. C. Bedford (11) , P. Edwards (7) , N. Mangold (12) , A. Cousin (8) , R. B. Anderson (13) , V. Payré (14) , D. Vaniman (15) , D. F. Blake (16) , N. L. Lanza (1) , S. Gupta (17) , J. van Beek (6) , V. Sautter (18) , P. -Y. Meslin (8) , M. Rice (19) , R. Milliken (20) , R. Gellert (21) , L. Thompson (22) , B. C. Clark (23) , D. Y. Sumner (24) , A. A. Fraeman (25) , K. M. Kinch (2) , M. B. Madsen (2) , I. G. Mitrofanov (26) , I. Jun (25) , F. Calef (25) , A. R. Vasavada (25)

1 LANL - Los Alamos National Laboratory
2 Faculty of Science [Copenhagen]
3 SBU - Stony Brook University [SUNY]
4 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences [Pasadena]
5 EPS - Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences [Albuquerque]
6 MSSS - Malin Space Science Systems
7 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Leicester]
8 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
9 CEOAS - College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences [Corvallis]
10 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
11 The Open University Business School [Milton Keynes]
12 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique [UMR 6112]
13 USGS - United States Geological Survey
14 GeoRessources
15 PSI - Planetary Science Institute [Tucson]
16 ARC - NASA Ames Research Center
17 Department of Earth Science and Engineering [Imperial College London]
18 IMPMC - Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie
19 WWU - Western Washington University
20 Department of Geological Sciences [Providence]
21 Department of Physics [Guelph]
22 UNB - University of New Brunswick
23 SSI - Space Science Institute [Boulder]
24 EPS - UC Davis - Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences [Univ California Davis]
25 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
26 IKI - Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Diagenetic silica enrichment in fracture-associated halos that crosscut lacustrine and unconformably overlying aeolian sedimentary bedrock is observed on the lower north slope of Aeolis Mons in Gale crater, Mars. The diagenetic silica enrichment is colocated with detrital silica enrichment observed in the lacustrine bedrock yet extends into a considerably younger, unconformably draping aeolian sandstone, implying that diagenetic silica enrichment postdates the detrital silica enrichment. A causal connection between the detrital and diagenetic silica enrichment implies that water was present in the subsurface of Gale crater long after deposition of the lacustrine sediments and that it mobilized detrital amorphous silica and precipitated it along fractures in the overlying bedrock. Although absolute timing is uncertain, the observed diagenesis likely represents some of the most recent groundwater activity in Gale crater and suggests that the timescale of potential habitability extended considerably beyond the time that the lacustrine sediments of Aeolis Mons were deposited.

Keywords: Diagenesis; Silica; Groundwater; Gale crater; Mars; MSL

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Earth Sciences

J. Frydenvang, P. J. Gasda, J. A. Hurowitz, J. P. Grotzinger, R. C. Wiens, et al.. Diagenetic silica enrichment and late-stage groundwater activity in Gale crater, Mars. Geophysical Research Letters, 2017, 44, pp.4716-4724. ⟨10.1002/2017GL073323⟩. ⟨insu-03665968⟩