Science goals and objectives investigations of the south isidis region of mars have uncovered rocks rich in unaltered mafic minerals as well as a variety of aqueous alteration materials. This region…

This is a grant award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the SETI Institute, a non-profit scientific organization, to conduct research investigating the geology and aqueous alteration history of the South Isidis region of Mars. The $479,900 grant will fund analyses of orbital spectral and imaging data to address specific science questions, including the formation of phyllosilicates, carbonates, and other minerals, the effects of geologic processes like the Isidis impact and Syrtis lava flows, and the role of ancient fluvial features. The research methodology includes regional analyses of thermal and visible/near-infrared spectral data, detailed local investigations using targeted CRISM imagery, and generation of geologic maps and stratigraphic views. This grant does not have a set-aside designation.

Science goals and objectives investigations of the south isidis region of mars have uncovered rocks rich in unaltered mafic minerals as well as a variety of aqueous alteration materials. This region of mars is unique in that there are exposed views of the ancient crustal rocks, lava flows from syrtis major, alteration from the isidis impact, and multiple valley networks, stream beds and deltas. Recent morphologic and spectroscopic studies using coordinated crism-hrsc and crism-hirise-CTX imagery have revealed stratigraphic units containing phyllosilicates, carbonate, olivine and pyroxene in isolated regions (e.g., bishop ET AL., 2013). We propose to extend this work across a broader area of libya montes and south across tyrrhena terra towards hellas basin. Specific questions we will address include: 1) when and how did the phyllosilicates, opal, carbonate, zeolite and perhaps sulfates form? 2) how were the surface rocks altered by the syrtis flow and the isidis impact? (and how similar were the geologic processes at libya montes, nili fossae and tyrrhena terra?) 3) what were the effects of the aqueous channels and deltas on the surface rocks? 4) how did smaller craters such as dulovo, hashir, bradbury, lipany, jerry-desloges, auki, and lopez affect the surface rocks? 5) how does the surface mineralogy across the study region compare with elemental abundances from GRS?, and 6) what extent does impact alteration play in formation or transformation of the mineralogy? More specifically, are the beidellite and chlorite formed through low-temperature alteration from impacts or from burial diagenesis? Methodology task 1A) we will conduct regional analyses of the spectral properties using TES, themis and crism multispectral images and compare these with trends in chemistry from GRS and grain size, induration, etc. From thermal inertia derived from TES and themis. Task 1B) we will analyze all targeted crism images across the libya montes and tyrrhena terra regions for detailed, local investigation of the mineralogy and correlation with fluvial, impact, volcanic and aeolian features. Task 2) we will perform age dating and surface analyses in order to generate maps of geologic terrains across the region. Task 3) we will prepare stratigraphic views of compositional units using crism over CTX/hrsc dtms with arcscene for tens to 100S of KM views, crism over mola with envi for 5-10 KM views, and crism over hirise dtms for the highest resolution at