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Dr. Joy Crisp wearing her hematite necklace
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Busy as she has been with work, JPL's Dr. Joy Crisp, project
scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, found time a few weeks ago to do
a little shopping. The new necklace she bought is a simple string of
dark grey beads and wasn't expensive. What makes it significant is that
it is made of specular hematite, which for Mars scientists like Crisp
may prove to be more special than diamonds.
On Earth, the shiny grey mineral has been used to make jewelry for
hundreds of years. On Mars, grey hematite may help prove whether large
amounts of liquid water ever flowed on Mars' surface. Where water was,
life may have had a chance to thrive as well.
Hematite is made up of iron and oxygen-a type of iron oxide. It
takes its name from the Greek word for "blood," and is a rusty color in
powdered form. Fine-grained hematite helps gives Mars its characteristic
red hue.
"Grey hematite is a mineral indicator of past water," says Crisp. "It
is not always associated with water, but it often is."
Deposits of grey hematite are typically found in places where there has
been standing water or mineral hot springs, such as those in
Yellowstone. The mineral can precipitate out of water and collect in
layers at the bottom of a lake, spring, or other standing water. But
hematite can also occur without water, as the result of volcanic activity.
Scientists have wanted to find out which of these processes created
grey hematite on Mars since 1998, when Mars Global Surveyor spotted large
concentrations of the mineral near the planet's equator. This discovery
provided the first mineral evidence that Mars' history may have included water.
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TES geologic map of Mars showing hematite-rich areas in red.
[Browse Image]
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If all goes well, they'll get a close look at Mars' grey hematite
when Opportunity, Spirit's rover twin, lands this week in an area rich in the
grey mineral. To find out what helped produce the hematite - water or
volcanic activity - they'll be examining both the form of the hematite
and the company it is keeping.
"We want to know if the grains of hematite appear to be rounded and
cemented together by the action of liquid water or if they're crystals
that grew from a volcanic melt," says Crisp. "Is the hematite in layers,
which would suggest that it was laid down by water, or in veins in the
rock, which would be more characteristic of water having flowed through
the rocks."
"The area where we are going has 10 to 15 percent grey hematite,"
Crisp says. "What are the other materials found with the hematite? Clays and
carbonates would indicate there had been water in the area. If the area
had been volcanic, you would expect to see other types of minerals like
olivine and pyroxene."
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The distribution of hematite in Sinus Meridiani, where Meridiani Planum is located.
[Browse Image]
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"We're very interested to know if this region could have been like
Yellowstone, with hot springs, so we'll be looking to see if there are
other minerals in the area such as those at Yellowstone."
"Knowing just how the hematite on Mars was formed will help us
characterize the past environment and determine whether that environment
was favorable for life," says Crisp. "One big question, of course, is
whether life ever started on Mars. This mission probably won't tell us
that, but it may well lead to future mission that can answer that question."
In the meantime, Crisp wears her newly acquired hematite necklace for
luck.
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