P009
Curiosity's Exploration of Glen Torridon and the Greenheugh Pediment, Gale Crater, Mars

Session ID#: 80743

Session Description:
NASA's Curiosity rover is advancing our understanding of ancient environments and habitability as it ascends through progressively younger strata on Mount Sharp. Curiosity has reached Glen Torridon, a trough with evidence of hydrated iron-bearing smectite in orbiter spectra. Initial rover observations find clay mineral-bearing, finely laminated mudstones, with intercalated minor, thin, cross-bedded sandstones. Ongoing analyses aim to understand the stratigraphic context of these units, their depositional settings, the origin of the clay minerals, and the implications for habitability and preservation of organic molecules. The rover is also examining younger stratigraphic units that unconformably overlie truncated Mount Sharp strata and are central to understanding the extended record of habitable environments. One such unit is exposed as the Greenheugh pediment, a nearly 3 square km erosionally resistant planar sloping surface that may hold clues to the youngest pulse of fluvial activity that the rover can study.
Index Terms:

5215 Origin of life [PLANETARY SCIENCES: ASTROBIOLOGY]
5470 Surface materials and properties [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS]
6225 Mars [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS]


Primary Convener:  Ashwin R Vasavada, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States and Mars Science Laboratory Science Team
Conveners:  Michael A Meyer, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, United States, Valerie Kristen Fox, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States and Mars Science Laboratory Science Team
Primary Liaison:  Ashwin R Vasavada, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States and Mars Science Laboratory Science Team
 
ChemCam Visible/Near-infrared Spectra of Drill Tailings and Nontronite-bearing Rocks in the Northern Glen Torridon area, Gale Crater, Mars (489891)
Jeffrey Roy Johnson, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, Abigail Fraeman, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, Briony H. N. Horgan, Purdue University, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, West Lafayette, IN, United States, Melissa S Rice, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, United States, Roger C Wiens, Space Science and Applications, Los Alamos, NM, United States; Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, Sylvestre Maurice, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), Toulouse, France and MSL Science Team
 
What record will the Greenheugh pediment and associated landforms in Gale crater reveal about Martian climate history? (Invited) (491268)
Alexander B. Bryk1, William E Dietrich1, Michael P Lamb2, John P Grotzinger3, Ashwin R Vasavada4, Kathryn Stack4, Raymond E Arvidson5, Christopher Fedo6, Valerie K Fox7, Sanjeev Gupta8, Roger C Wiens9, Rebecca M. E. Williams10, Rachel E. Kronyak11, Kevin W Lewis12, David M Rubin13, William Rapin2, Laetitia Le Deit14, Stephane Le Mouelic15, Kenneth S Edgett16, Abigail Fraeman4, Steven Banham17, Madison Hughes18 and Linda C Kah19, (1)University of California Berkeley, Earth and Planetary Science, Berkeley, CA, United States, (2)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (3)Caltech, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (5)Washington University in St Louis, Earth and Planetary Sciences, St. Louis, MO, United States, (6)University of Tennessee, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Knoxville, TN, United States, (7)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, (8)Imperial College London, Earth Science and Engineering, London, United Kingdom, (9)Space Science and Applications, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (10)Planetary Science Institute Tucson, Tucson, AZ, United States, (11)University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States, (12)Johns Hopkins University, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Baltimore, MD, United States, (13)University of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States, (14)University of Nantes, Nantes, France, (15)LPGN Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes, Nantes Cedex 03, France, (16)Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA, United States, (17)Imperial College London, London, SW7, United Kingdom, (18)Washington University, Earth & Planetary Sciences, Saint Louis, MO, United States, (19)University of Tennesse, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Knoxville, TN, United States
 
Geochemical Composition and Alteration History of the Clay-Bearing Sedimentary Rocks of Glen Torridon (Gale Crater, Mars) Analyzed by the ChemCam Instrument (501171)
Erwin Dehouck1, Agnes Cousin2, Nicolas Mangold3, Jens Frydenvang4, Gaël David2, Jeremie Lasue2, Pierre-Yves Meslin2, Olivier Gasnault2, Valerie Kristen Fox5, Kristen A Bennett6, Samuel M Clegg7, Patrick James Gasda7, Sylvestre Maurice2 and Roger C Wiens7, (1)LGLTPE Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon : Terre, Planètes et Environnement, Villeurbanne Cedex, France, (2)Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), Toulouse, France, (3)LPGN Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes, Nantes Cedex 03, France, (4)University of Copenhagen, København K, Denmark, (5)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (6)USGS Astrogeology Science Center, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (7)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States
 
Results from the Curiosity Rover’s Traverse Through the Clay-Bearing Glen Torridon Region in Gale Crater (Invited) (506844)
Kristen A Bennett1, Valerie Kristen Fox2, Alexander B. Bryk3, Christopher Fedo4, Ashwin R Vasavada5, Erwin Dehouck6, Lucy M Thompson7, Catherine O'Connell-Cooper7, Thomas Bristow8, Maëva Millan9, Amy McAdam10, Roger C Wiens11, Christopher H House12 and Nicolas Mangold13, (1)USGS Astrogeology Science Center, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (2)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (3)University of California Berkeley, Earth and Planetary Science, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)University of Tennessee, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Knoxville, TN, United States, (5)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (6)University Paul Sabatier, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, Toulouse, France, (7)University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada, (8)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (9)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States, (10)NASA Goddard SFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (11)Space Science and Applications, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (12)Pennsylvania State University, Geosciences and Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, University Park, PA, United States, (13)Universite Nantes, Nantes, France
 
Bulk Hydration of the Glen Torridon Clay-rich Unit in Gale Crater, Mars (512262)
Sean Czarnecki1, Craig Hardgrove1 and Patrick James Gasda2, (1)Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States, (2)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States
 
Measurements of the Radiation Environment with the MSL/RAD Instrument on Gale Crater on Mars (544093)
Bent Ehresmann, Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, Don Hassler, Southwest Research Inst, Boulder, CO, United States, Cary Zeitlin, Leidos Innovations Corporation, Houston, TX, United States, Daniel Matthiae, DLR, Cologne, Germany, Robert F Wimmer-Schweingruber, University of Kiel, Institute for Experimental and Applied Physics, Kiel, Germany, Jingnan Guo, USTC University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, Henning Lohf, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany and Gunther Reitz, German Aerospace Center DLR Cologne, Cologne, Germany
 
Optimization of the Sample Analysis at Mars Wet Chemistry Experiment for the Detection of Organics in Glen Torridon (556114)
Maëva Millan1,2, Paul R Mahaffy3, Caroline Freissinet4, Daniel Patrick Glavin5, Arnaud Buch6, Cyril Szopa7, Anushree Srivastava2, Chad Pozarycki2, Slavka C Andrejkovicova8, Amy McAdam3, Samuel Teinturier9, Charles Malespin9, Ross H Williams9, Amy J Williams10, David Coscia4, Jennifer L Eigenbrode9, Eric Raaen9, Jason P Dworkin5, Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez11 and Sarah Johnson1, (1)Georgetown University, Washington, DC, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States, (3)NASA Goddard SFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (4)LATMOS Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Paris Cedex 05, France, (5)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar System Exploration Division, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (6)CentraleSupelec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France, (7)Université Versailles St-Quentin, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, CNRS, LATMOS Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Paris, France, (8)Universities Space Research Association Greenbelt, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (9)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (10)Univeristy of Florida, Department of Geological Sciences, Gainesville, United States, (11)Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, EM, Mexico
 
In-situ investigation of periodic bedrock ridges in the Glen Torridon area with the MSL Curiosity rover, Gale crater, Mars (557805)
Kathryn Stack1, Raymond E Arvidson2, Kristen A Bennett3, Alexander B. Bryk4, Kenneth S Edgett5, Christopher Fedo6, Valerie K Fox7, Abigail Fraeman8, Christopher H House9, Jason Rabinovitch1, Robert J Sullivan Jr10, Jason Van Beek5 and Rebecca M. E. Williams11, (1)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)Washington University in St Louis, Earth and Planetary Sciences, St. Louis, MO, United States, (3)Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States, (4)University of California Berkeley, Earth and Planetary Science, Berkeley, CA, United States, (5)Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA, United States, (6)University of Tennessee, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Knoxville, TN, United States, (7)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, (8)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (9)Pennsylvania State University, Geosciences and Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, University Park, PA, United States, (10)Cornell University, CCAPS, Ithaca, NY, United States, (11)Planetary Science Institute Tucson, Tucson, AZ, United States
 
The Clay Minerals of Glen Torridon (559004)
Thomas Bristow1, Elizabeth B Rampe2, John P Grotzinger3, Valerie K Fox4, Kristen A Bennett5, Albert Yen6, Richard C Walroth1, Ashwin R Vasavada6, David Vaniman7, Valerie Tu8, Allan H Treiman9, Michael Thorpe10, Shaunna M Morrison11, Richard V Morris2, Douglas W Ming2, Amy McAdam12, Charles Malespin13, Paul R Mahaffy12, Robert Hazen11, Sanjeev Gupta14, Robert T Downs15, Gordon Downs16, David Des Marais17, Joy A Crisp18, Patricia Craig19, Steve Chipera20, Nicholas Castle21, David Frederick Blake1 and Cherie Achilles13, (1)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (2)NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, United States, (3)Caltech, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, (5)Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States, (6)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (7)Planetary Science Institute, Tuscon, CA, United States, (8)Jacobs at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, United States, (9)Lunar & Planetary Inst, Houston, TX, United States, (10)NASA JSC, Houston, TX, United States, (11)Carnegie Institution for Science, Geophysical Laboratory, Washington, DC, United States, (12)NASA Goddard SFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (13)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (14)Imperial College London, Earth Science and Engineering, London, United Kingdom, (15)University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States, (16)University of Arizona, Tucson, United States, (17)NASA Ames, Mountain View, CA, United States, (18)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (19)Planetary Science Institute Tucson, Tucson, United States, (20)Chesapeake Energy, Oklahoma City, OK, United States, (21)Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, United States
 
Mastcam Spectral Diversity Within Glen Torridon, Gale Crater, Mars (559812)
Christina Seeger1, Melissa S Rice2, Mason Starr2, Cory M. Hughes2 and Katelyn Frizzell2, (1)Western Washington University, Geology, Bellingham, WA, United States, (2)Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, United States
 
Glen Torridon: Chemical Relationship to Members of the Murray Formation (Gale Crater, Mars) (559993)
Albert S Yen1, Lucy M Thompson2, Ralf Gellert3, Jeff A Berger4, David Frederick Blake5, Michael McCraig4, Douglas W Ming6, Richard V Morris6, Shaunna M Morrison7, Catherine O'Connell-Cooper2, John G Spray2, Scott VanBommel8 and David Vaniman9, (1)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada, (3)University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada, (4)University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada, (5)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (6)NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, United States, (7)Carnegie Institution for Science, Geophysical Laboratory, Washington, DC, United States, (8)Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, United States, (9)Planetary Science Institute, Tuscon, CA, United States
 
Bedding Orientations of the Vera Rubin Ridge, Gale Crater, Mars and Implications for Regional Stratigraphy (567357)
Nathaniel Stein1, John P Grotzinger1, Daven Patel Quinn2, Christopher Fedo3, Kathryn Stack4, Lauren A Edgar5, Abigail Fraeman4 and Bethany L Ehlmann1, (1)California Institute of Technology, Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, WI, United States, (3)University of Tennessee, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Knoxville, TN, United States, (4)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (5)USGS, Astrogeology, Flagstaff, AZ, United States
 
Evolved gas and X-ray diffraction analyses of sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater, Mars: Results from the Vera Rubin Ridge to the Glen Torridon Clay Unit. (589841)
Brad Sutter1, Amy McAdam2, Douglas W Ming3, Christopher Fedo4, Christopher H House5, Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez6, Jennifer L Eigenbrode7, Paul R Mahaffy2, Elizabeth B Rampe3, Heather B. Franz7, Caroline Freissinet8, Doug Archer Jr.1, Charles Malespin7, Jennifer C Stern7 and Daniel Patrick Glavin9, (1)Jacobs Technology, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, United States, (2)NASA Goddard SFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, United States, (4)University of Tennessee, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Knoxville, TN, United States, (5)Pennsylvania State University, Geosciences and Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, University Park, PA, United States, (6)Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, EM, Mexico, (7)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (8)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Postdoctoral Program, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (9)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar System Exploration Division, Greenbelt, MD, United States
 
Distinct small-scale (0.1 to 1 m) regolith features suggest regolith activity and provide clues about the bedrock at Glen Torridon, Gale Crater, Mars (593254)
Bernard Hallet, University of Washington, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seattle, WA, United States, Ronald S Sletten, University of Washington, Quaternary Research Center, Earth and Space Sciences, Seattle, WA, United States, Nicolas Mangold, Universite Nantes, Nantes, France, Alberto G. Fairén, Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Madrid, Spain, and Dept. of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States and Robert J Sullivan Jr, Cornell University, CCAPS, Ithaca, NY, United States
 
Geologic Structure of the Vera Rubin ridge and clay-bearing Glen Torridon region, Gale Crater, Mars (598362)
Madison Leigh Turner, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States and Kevin W Lewis, Johns Hopkins University, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Baltimore, MD, United States
 
Connecting Lower Mount Sharp Strata: how does the Clay-bearing Unit in Glen Torridon Relate to the Murray Formation, Gale Crater, Mars (611320)
Christopher Fedo1, John P Grotzinger2, Lauren A Edgar3, Alexander B. Bryk4, Valerie K Fox5, Kristen A Bennett6, Kathryn Stack7, Abigail Fraeman8, Kenneth S Edgett9, Sanjeev Gupta10, Steven Banham11, Vivian Zheng Sun12, Christopher H House13, Ashwin R Vasavada7 and Nathaniel Stein8, (1)University of Tennessee, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Knoxville, TN, United States, (2)Caltech, Pasadena, CA, United States, (3)USGS, Astrogeology, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (4)University of California Berkeley, Earth and Planetary Science, Berkeley, CA, United States, (5)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, (6)Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States, (7)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (8)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (9)Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA, United States, (10)Imperial College London, Earth Science and Engineering, London, United Kingdom, (11)Imperial College London, London, SW7, United Kingdom, (12)Brown University, Providence, RI, United States, (13)Pennsylvania State University, Geosciences and Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, University Park, PA, United States
 
Curiosity's Climb in Global Context: Evolution of Major Sedimentary Mounds on Mars (630222)
Edwin S Kite, University of Chicago, Geophysical Sciences, Chicago, IL, United States, Kevin W Lewis, Johns Hopkins University, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Baltimore, MD, United States, Jonathan Sneed, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States, Liam Steele, Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, David P Mayer, United States Geological Survey, Astrogeology Science Center, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, Timothy I Michaels, SETI Institute, Erie, CO, United States, Leila Gabasova, Universite Grenoble-Alpes, Grenoble, France and Scot CR Rafkin, Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
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