Evaporative Salts from Saline Lakes on Tibet Plateau: an Analog for Salts on Mars,

Martian salts: Salts have been identified on Mars by spectrometers on orbiters and rovers. Among them, Mg-, Ca-, and Fesulfates were identified or implied in Meridiani outcrop [1] and in Gusev salty soils and rocks [2,3]; kieserite (MgSO4.H2O) and “polyhydrated sulfates” were found in Valley Marineris, Meridiani Planum, and gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) near North Pole [4,5,6,7]. Recently, chloride-bearing materials were suggested to present in low albedo region of Southern highlands on Mars [8], and carbonate bearing rocks at Nilli Fossea beneath an olivine-rich layer [9]. The majority of these salts and their geomorphic occurrences suggest a deposition origin from aqueous solutions [10] in the early part of Mars history and the subsequent dehydrations/degenerations. In each mission to Mars, there were certain limitations for salt detection and characterization. Laboratory simulation experiments [11,12,13,14,15] and terrestrial analog studies [16,17] can help to interpret the exact mineral species observed on Mars, to delineate their original hydration status, the co-existing minerals (even spectrally nonactive), the environments of deposition, and the subsequent diagenetic histories. In this abstract we report initial results from a field campaign to a sulfatedominated lacustrine system on the Tibetan Plateau.