Impact-generated Hydrothermal Alteration on Early Mars in Presence of Co2
نویسندگان
چکیده
Introduction: Impact-generated hydrothermal systems may have caused widespread alteration of the crust on early Mars. We previously explored the range of alteration products using several Martian meteorites as crustal proxies: LEW88516 [1-3], Dhofar 378, Chassigny [4], and Nakhla [5]. Overall, the dominating alteration phases are oxides, hydroxides, clay minerals, and other hydrous silicates. Our results match well with the hydrous silicates (nontronite, chlorite) observed by OMEGA and CRISM [e.g., 6,7]. The two most recent findings by CRISM are carbonates [8] and serpentine [9]. While the latter is formed in our calculations from all olivine-rich starting compositions (LEW88516, Chassigny), carbonates require CO 2 (or HCO 3
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