Earlier this year , NASA ’s Curiosity rover discovered felsic mineral on Mars . While mineral like feldspar and quartz make up themajority of Earth ’s crustthere has not been a lot of evidence to suggest that these minerals exist on Mars . This has exciting implications that the geology of Mars is much more complex than was previously live . The work was led by James Wray of theSchool of Earth and Atmospheric Sciencesat Georgia Tech and was published inNature Geoscience .
Mars does n’t seem to have architectonic plates , intend the satellite ’s crust does not undergo the same magmatic cycle as Earth to create mineral like felspar . Most evidence to the reverse has likely been lost to corrosion . Most of Mars is covered in basalt , a volcanic rock . This case of rock and roll is predict mafic , as it contain large sum of money of atomic number 12 and iron ( “ ferric ” is used to describe iron - plentiful substances ) .
However , after Curiosity find the felsic minerals , scientist wanted to take another expression . The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter tooknear - infrared prototype of three completely dissimilar areasof the Martian control surface . They were able to detect feldspar in a really ancient volcano , which means it had to exist in large enough quantities to be discover through the basalt .
scientist reason that this could have come about in a process know as fractionation . The magma in the volcano is separated based on density when it cools . Over an extended menses of clip , it might not be such a stretch that something like granite could form this way .
Another paper published in the same journalargues that the feldspar from other areas on Mars is more indicative of anorthosite , not granite . Anorthosite is an igneous rockthat is shape when mafic rock , like what are normally found on Mars , melt in the magma chambers in the insolence . A liquid with a density greater than the magma separates out to cool on the incrustation . Small sum of the liquid crystallize in the bottom of the chamber and is known as anorthosite . While there is n’t currently a consensus about what the feldspar indicates , we now get it on that it is much more than a boring globe of basalt .
While much of the populace ’s interest in Mars has been centre on urine contentedness and hypothesis for life , there is a great deal of interest in the geology of Mars . The rocks can provide major information about what has happened to the planet ’s surface in the 4 billion class since it was abundantly incubate in water . understand the planet ’s composing might help determine what cosmonaut will call for when they are direct on missions to Mars .
