P009
Curiosity's Exploration of Glen Torridon and the Greenheugh Pediment, Gale Crater, Mars
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
See more of: Planetary Sciences
