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Originally published in Science Express on 17 February 2005
Science 11 March 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5715, pp. 1591 - 1594
DOI: 10.1126/science.1109509
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Reports

Spectral Reflectance and Morphologic Correlations in Eastern Terra Meridiani, Mars

R. E. Arvidson,1* F. Poulet,2 J.-P. Bibring,2 M. Wolff,3 A. Gendrin,2 R. V. Morris,4 J. J. Freeman,1 Y. Langevin,2 N. Mangold,2 G. Bellucci5

The Mars Express Observatoire pour la Minéralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces, et l'Activité (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 mineralogical similarities between the etched terrain deposits examined with OMEGA data and the layered rocks examined by Opportunity imply that the ancient aqueous environments inferred from analyses of the rover data extend over regional scales.

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

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: arvidson{at}wunder.wustl.edu

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