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Published Online February 17, 2005
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1109509

Research Articles

Submitted on January 7, 2005
Accepted on February 4, 2005

Spectral Reflectance and Morphologic Correlations in Eastern Terra Meridiani, Mars

Raymond E. Arvidson 1*, François Poulet 2, Jean-Pierre Bibring 2, Michael Wolff 3, Aline Gendrin 2, Richard V. Morris 4, John J. Freeman 1, Yves Langevin 2, Nicholas Mangold 2, G. Bellucci 5

1 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
2 Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Bâtiment 121, 91405, Orsay Campus, France.
3 Space Science Institute, Boulder CO 80301, USA.
4 NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
5 INAF Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, Via Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Rome, Italy.

Mars Express OMEGA hyperspectral image data covering eastern Terra Meridiani indicate the ubiquitous presence of molecular water in etched terrain materials that disconformably overlie heavily cratered terrains and underlie the hematite-bearing plains explored by the Opportunity rover. Identification of crystalline water in kieserite (MgSO4·H2O) is linked to materials exposed in a valley and plateau to the north of hematite-bearing plains. The similarity between the etched terrain deposits examined with OMEGA data and the layered rocks examined by the Opportunity imply that the ancient aqueous environments inferred from analyses of the rover data extend over regional scales.


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