Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 41, Issue 23, Pages 8235-8244Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2014GL062533
Keywords
Martian meteorites; NWA 7034; ancient Martian regolith breccia; water in NWA 7034; hydrous phases
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Funding
- Mars Fundamental Research Program [NNX13AG44G]
- NASA Cosmochemistry Program [NNX13AH85G, NNX14AI23G, NNX13AG40G]
- Mobilitas grant [MJD320]
- NASA SRLIDAP program
- NASA [NNX13AH85G, 681128, NNX14AI23G, 473902, 473680, NNX13AG40G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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Water-rich Martian regolith breccia Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy to determine the inventory and phase distribution of H2O (used herein to refer to both molecular H2O and OH- structural components in hydrous minerals). Hydrous Fe oxide phases (hydromaghemite and an unidentified nanocrystalline Fe-bearing oxide phase observed with hydromaghemite) and phyllosilicates (saponite) were identified as the primary mineralogic hosts for H2O with a minor contribution from Cl-rich apatite. Based on mass balance calculations and modal abundances of minerals constrained by powder X-ray diffraction and petrography, we can account for the entire 6000ppm H2O measured in bulk rock analyses of NWA 7034. This H2O is distributed evenly between hydrous Fe-rich oxides and phyllosilicates, indicating that Fe oxides could be as important as phyllosilicates for H2O storage in Martian surface material.
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