Researchers now have stronger evidence of granite¹（花岗岩） on Mars and a new theory for how the granite -- an igneous² rock（火成岩） common on Earth -- could have formed there, according to a new study. The findings suggest a much more geologically complex Mars than previously³ believed. Large amounts of a mineral found in granite, known as feldspar（长石）, were found in an ancient Martian volcano. Further, minerals that are common in basalts（玄武岩） that are rich in iron and magnesium⁴, ubiquitous on Mars, are nearly completely absent at this location. The location of the feldspar also provides an explanation for how granite could have formed on Mars. Granite, or its eruptive equivalent, rhyolite, is often found on Earth in tectonically active regions such as subduction zones. This is unlikely on Mars, but the research team concluded that prolonged magmatic activity on Mars can also produce these compositions on large scales.

 

"We're providing the most compelling evidence to date that Mars has granitic⁵ rocks," said James Wray, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric⁶ Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the study's lead author.

 

The research was published November 17 in the Advance Online Publication of the journal Nature Geoscience. The work was supported by the NASA Mars Data Analysis Program.

 

For years Mars was considered geologically simplistic, consisting mostly of one kind of rock, in contrast to the diverse geology of Earth. The rocks that cover most of Mars's surface are dark-colored volcanic⁷ rocks, called basalt, a type of rock also found throughout Hawaii for instance.

 

But earlier this year, the Mars Curiosity rover surprised scientists by discovering soils with a composition similar to granite, a light-colored, common igneous rock. No one knew what to make of the discovery because it was limited to one site on Mars.

 

The new study bolsters⁸ the evidence for granite on Mars by using remote sensing techniques with infrared⁹ spectroscopy to survey a large volcano on Mars that was active for billions of years. The volcano is dust-free, making it ideal for the study. Most volcanoes on Mars are blanketed with dust, but this volcano is being sand-blasted by some of the fastest-moving sand dunes¹⁰ on Mars, sweeping¹¹ away any dust that might fall on the volcano. Inside, the research team found rich deposits of feldspar, which came as a surprise.

 

"Using the kind of infrared spectroscopic technique we were using, you shouldn't really be able to detect feldspar minerals, unless there's really, really a lot of feldspar and very little of the dark minerals that you get in basalt," Wray said.

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