Characteristics of pebble‐ and cobble‐sized clasts along the Curiosity rover traverse from Bradbury Landing to Rocknest
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: We have assessed the characteristics of clasts along Curiosity's traverse to shed light on the processes important in the genesis, modification, and transportation of surface materials. Pebble‐ to cobble‐sized clasts at Bradbury Landing, and subsequently along Curiosity's traverse to Yellowknife Bay, reflect a mixing of two end‐member transport mechanisms. The general clast population likely represents material deposited via impact processes, including meteorite fragments, ejecta from distant craters, and impactites consisting of shocked and shock‐melted materials from within Gale Crater, which resulted predominantly in larger, angular clasts. A subset of rounded pebble‐sized clasts has likely been modified by intermittent alluvial or fluvial processes. The morphology of this rounded clast population indicates that water was a more important transporting agent here than at other Mars sites that have been studied in situ. Finally, we identified populations of basalt clasts and porphyritic clasts of undetermined composition by their morphologic and textural characteristics; basalts are confirmed by geochemical data provided by ChemCam.
DOI: 10.1002/2013je004435
Authors: R. A. Yingst, L. C. Kah, M. Palucis, R. M. E. Williams, J. Garvin, J. C. Bridges, N. Bridges, R. G. Deen, J. Farmer, O. Gasnault, W. Goetz, V. E. Hamilton, V. Hipkin, J. K. Jensen, P. L. King, A. Koefoed, S. P. Le Mouélic, M. B Madsen, N. Mangold, J. Martinez‐Frias, S. Maurice, E. M. McCartney, H. Newsom, O. Pariser, V. H. Sautter, R. C. Wiens
Institutions: Planetary Science Institute, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of California, Berkeley, Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Leicester, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Arizona State University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géosciences, Université de Nantes, Nantes Université, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Southwest Research Institute, Canadian Space Agency, University of Copenhagen, Australian National University, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Geociencias, Malin Space Science Systems (United States), University of New Mexico, Structure et Instabilité des Génomes, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Language: English
Subfield: Space and Planetary Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2162853006