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Science 21 April 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5772, pp. 400 - 404
DOI: 10.1126/science.1122659
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Research Articles

Global Mineralogical and Aqueous Mars History Derived from OMEGA/Mars Express Data

Jean-Pierre Bibring,1 Yves Langevin,1 John F. Mustard,2 François Poulet,1 Raymond Arvidson,3 Aline Gendrin,1,2 Brigitte Gondet,1 Nicolas Mangold,4 P. Pinet,5 F. Forget,6 the OMEGA team Michel Berthé,7 Jean-Pierre Bibring,7 Aline Gendrin,7 Cécile Gomez,7 Brigitte Gondet,7 Denis Jouglet,7 François Poulet,7 Alain Soufflot,7 Mathieu Vincendon,7 Michel Combes,8 Pierre Drossart,8 Thérèse Encrenaz,8 Thierry Fouchet,8 Riccardo Merchiorri,8 GianCarlo Belluci,9 Francesca Altieri,9 Vittorio Formisano,9 Fabricio Capaccioni,10 Pricilla Cerroni,10 Angioletta Coradini,10 Sergio Fonti,11 Oleg Korablev,12 Volodia Kottsov,12 Nikolai Ignatiev,12 Vassili Moroz,12 Dimitri Titov,12 Ludmilla Zasova,12 Damien Loiseau,13 Nicolas Mangold,13 Patrick Pinet,14 Sylvain Douté,15 Bernard Schmitt,15 Christophe Sotin,16 Ernst Hauber,17 Harald Hoffmann,17 Ralf Jaumann,17 Uwe Keller,18 Ray Arvidson,19 John F. Mustard,20 Tom Duxbury,21 François Forget,22 G. Neukum23

Global mineralogical mapping of Mars by the Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité (OMEGA) instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft provides new information on Mars' geological and climatic history. Phyllosilicates formed by aqueous alteration very early in the planet's history (the "phyllocian" era) are found in the oldest terrains; sulfates were formed in a second era (the "theiikian" era) in an acidic environment. Beginning about 3.5 billion years ago, the last era (the "siderikian") is dominated by the formation of anhydrous ferric oxides in a slow superficial weathering, without liquid water playing a major role across the planet.

1 Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), Bâtiment 121, 91405 Orsay Campus, France.
2 Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
3 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
4 Interactions et Dynamique des Environnement de Surface (IDES), Bâtiment 509, 91405 Orsay Campus, France.
5 Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France.
6 Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD), Université Paris 6, Paris, France.
7 IAS, Orsay Campus, France.
8 Laboratoire d'Etudes Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique, Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France.
9 Istituto di Fisica della Spazio Interplanetario–Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (IFSI-INAF), Rome, Italy.
10 IAS-INAF, Rome, Italy.
11 University of Lecce, Italy.
12 Institut Komichiski Issledovanie, Moscow, Russia.
13 IDES, Orsay Campus, France.
14 Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France.
15 Laboratoire de Planétologie, Grenoble, France.
16 Departement de Planétologie, Université de Nantes, France.
17 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Berlin, Germany.
18 Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Lindau, Germany.
19 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
20 Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
21 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA.
22 LMD, Université Paris 6, Paris, France.
23 Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)