Amorphous Mg-sulfates: The existence of hydrous Mg-sulfates in martian surface materials has been implied by all landed missions on Mars to date[17], and has been identified by orbital remote sensing (OMEGA and CRISM) [8-10]. Well-controlled laboratory experiments on hydrous sulfates [11-19] provide the fundamental underpinning to link the surface and orbital observations, as well as to address...

Las Vegas Wash drains the Las Vegas Basin in Nevada by capturing a series of tributaries and ending in LakeMead and is being developed into an urban wetland. The soils are part of the Land series and contain high concentrations of pedogenic salts because of local sulfate-rich parent materials and high evapotranspiration rates. These salts cause damage to property, affect plant communities in th...

Kieserite on Mars: The hydrous Mg-sulfate that has been identified definitively on Mars by OMEGA (Mars Express orbiter) is kieserite (MgSO4·H2O) [1]. An additional class of OMEGA spectra has been attributed to “polyhydrated sulfate.” This class has spectral features that match Mg-sulfates of higher hydration or multi-cation sulfates [2,3]. Ca-sulfates, especially gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O), are also i...

2049 for XXXXII Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (March, 2011), Houston, TX A LOW T, HIGH RH, AND POTENTIALLY LIFE-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT WITHIN THE MARTIAN SALT-RICH SUBSURFACE IN EQUATORIAL REGIONS. Alian Wang 1 , M. P. Zheng 2 , F. J. Kong 2 , Z. C. Ling 3 , W. G. Kong 3 , P. Sobron 1 , B. L. Jolliff 1 , 1 Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the McDonnell Center for the Space Scien...