Subglacial hydrothermal alteration minerals in Jökulhlaup deposits of Southern Iceland, with implications for detecting past or present habitable environments on Mars

Astrobiology
Nicholas H Warner, J D Farmer

Abstract

Jökulhlaups are terrestrial catastrophic outfloods, often triggered by subglacial volcanic eruptions. Similar volcano-ice interactions were likely important on Mars where magma/lava may have interacted with the planet's cryosphere to produce catastrophic floods. As a potential analogue to sediments deposited during martian floods, the Holocene sandurs of Iceland are dominated by basaltic clasts derived from the subglacial environment and deposited during jökulhlaups. Palagonite tuffs and breccias, present within the deposits, represent the primary alteration lithology. The surface abundance of palagonite on the sandurs is 1-20%. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of palagonite breccias confirms a mineral assemblage of zeolites, smectites, low-quartz, and kaolinite. Oriented powder X-ray diffractograms (< 2 microm fraction) for palagonite breccia clasts and coatings reveal randomly ordered smectite, mixed layer smectite/illite, zeolites, and quartz. Visible light-near infrared (VNIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) lab spectroscopic data of the same palagonite samples show H2O/OH(-) absorptions associated with clays and zeolites. SWIR spectra derived from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) images ...Continue Reading

References

Aug 16, 2003·Science·Kazem Kashefi, Derek R Lovley
Feb 19, 2005·Science·Yves LangevinBrigitte Gondet
Dec 2, 2005·Nature·F PouletUNKNOWN Omega Team
Mar 22, 2008·Science·M M OsterlooF S Anderson
May 24, 2008·Science·S W SquyresP A de Souza
Dec 20, 2008·Astrobiology·Carlton C Allen, Dorothy Z Oehler

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Citations

Sep 1, 2011·Astrobiology·Claire R Cousins, Ian A Crawford
Jul 1, 2017·Astrobiology·Jorge L VagoChristophe Carreau

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
X-ray
lava

Software Mentioned

NEWMOD
OMEGA
Adobe Photoshop
ENVI
SPECPR
RockJock
Excel
SAM
D Visualizer
ASTER

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