Mineralogy of a Mudstone at Yellowknife Bay, Gale Crater, Mars

Authors: D. T. Vaniman, D. L. Bish, D. W. Ming, T. F. Bristow, R. V. Morris, D. F. Blake, S. J. Chipera, Shaunna M. Morrison, A. H. Treiman, E. B. Rampe, M. S. Rice, C. N. Achilles, J. P. Grotzinger, S. M. McLennan, Joshua Williams, J. F. Bell, H. E. Newsom, Robert T. Downs, S. Maurice, P. Sarrazin, A. S. Yen, J. M. Morookian, Jack D. Farmer, K. M. Stack, R. E. Milliken, B. L. Ehlmann, D. Y. Sumner, Gilles Berger, J. A. Crisp, J. A. Hurowitz, Robert C. Anderson, David J. Des Marais, Edward M. Stolper, K. S. Edgett, Sanjeev Gupta, N. Spanovich, MSL Science Team, Christophe Agard, J. Verdasca, R. B. Anderson, Doug Archer, Carlos Armiens‐Aparicio, Ray Arvidson, Evgeny Atlaskin, S. K. Atreya, A. D. Aubrey, Burt Baker, Michael B. Baker, T. Balić-Žunić, David Baratoux, Julien Baroukh, B. L. Barraclough, Keri Bean, L. W. Beegle, A. Behar, Steve Bender, M. Benna, Jennifer Bentz, J. A. Berger, D. C. Berman, J. J. Blanco, D. L. Blaney, Jen Blank, Hannah Blau, L. V. Bleacher, E. Boehm, Oliver Botta, S. Böttcher, Thomas Boucher, Hannah Bower, Nick Boyd, Bill Boynton, E. A. Breves, J. C. Bridges, N. T. Bridges, W. B. Brinckerhoff, D. E. Brinza, C. Brunet, Anna Brunner, W. Brunner, A. Buch, M. A. Bullock, S. Burmeister, M. Cabane, F. J. Calef, James F. Cameron, John “Iain” Campbell, B. A. Cantor, M. A. Caplinger, Javier Rodríguez, Marco Carmosino, Isaías Carrasco Blázquez, Antoine Charpentier, David S. Choi, B. C. Clark, S. M. Clegg, T. Cleghorn, E. A. Cloutis, George D. Cody, Patrice Coll, P. G. Conrad, David Coscia, A. Cousin, David A. Cremers, Alain Cros, Frank Cucinotta, C. d’Uston, Scott Davis, Mackenzie “Kenzie” Day, Manuel de la Torre Juárez, Lauren DeFlores, D. Delapp, Julia DeMarines, W. E. Dietrich, Robert Dingler, Christophe Donny, Darrell M. Drake, Gilles Dromart, Audrey Dupont, Brian Duston, Jason P. Dworkin, M. D. Dyar, Lauren Edgar, Christopher S. Edwards, Laurence Edwards, Bent Ehresmann, J. L. Eigenbrode, Beverley Elliott, Harvey Elliott, R. C. Ewing, C. Fabre, Alberto González Fairén, Kenneth A. Farley, C. I. Fassett, Laurent Favot, Donald Fay, F. Fedosov, Jason Feldman, Sabrina Feldman, Marty Fisk, Mike Fitzgibbon, Greg Flesch, Melissa Floyd, Lorenzo Flückiger, O. Forni, Abby Fraeman, Raymond Francis, Pascaline François, H. B. Franz, Caroline Freissinet, Katherine L. French, J. Frydenvang, Alain Gaboriaud, M. Gailhanou, J. B. Garvin, O. Gasnault, Claude Geffroy, R. Gellert, Maria Genzer, D. P. Glavin, Austin Godber, F. Goesmann, W. Goetz, D. V. Golovin, Felipe Gómez, Javier Gómez‐Elvira, B. Gondet, S. Gordon, Stephen Gorevan, J. A. Grant, J. L. Griffes, David Grinspoon, Philippe Guillemot, Jingnan Guo, Scott D. Guzewich, R. M. Haberle, Douglas Halleaux, B. Hallet, Vicky Hamilton, C. Hardgrove, D. E. Harker, Daniel Harpold, Ari‐Matti Harri, K. Harshman, Donald M. Hassler, Harri Haukka, Alex Hayes, Ken Herkenhoff, Paul Herrera, Sebastian Hettrich, Ezat Heydari, V. Hipkin, Tori M. Hoehler, Jeff Hollingsworth, Judy Hudgins, Wesley T. Huntress, S. F. Hviid, Karl Iagnemma, Steve Indyk, G. Israël, Ryan Jackson, Samantha Jacob, B. M. Jakosky, Elsa Jensen, Jaqueline Kløvgaard Jensen, J. R. Johnson, Micah Johnson, Steve Johnstone, Andrea Jones, J. H. Jones, J. Joseph, I. Jun, Linda C. Kah, Henrik Kahanpää, M. A. Kahre, Natalya Karpushkina, W. T. Kasprzak, Janne Kauhanen, Leslie Keely, Osku Kemppinen, Didier Keymeulen, Myung‐Hee Y. Kim, K. M. Kinch, Penny King, L. E. Kirkland, Gary Kocurek, Asmus Koefoed, Jan Köhler, Onno Kortmann, Alexander Kozyrev, Jill Krezoski, Daniel Krysak, R. O. Kuzmin, Jean Luc Lacour, Vivian Lafaille, Y. Langevin, N. Lanza, J. Lasue, Stéphane Le Mouëlic, Ella Mae Lee, Qiu-Mei Lee, David Lees, Matthew Lefavor, M. T. Lemmon, Alain Lepinette Malvitte, L. A. Leshin, Richard Léveillé, Éric Lewin-Carpintier, K. W. Lewis, Shuai Li, Leslie Lipkaman, Cynthia Little, M. L. Litvak, Éric Lorigny, G. W. Lugmair, Angela Lundberg, Eric Lyness, M. B. Madsen, P. R. Mahaffy, J. N. Maki, A. Malakhov, C. A. Malespin, M. C. Malin, N. Mangold, G. Manhès, H. L. K. Manning, Geneviève Marchand, Mercedes Marín Jiménez, César Martín García, Dave Martin, Mildred Martin, Jesús Martínez‐Frías, Javier Martín-Soler, Javier Martín‐Torres, P. Mauchien, A. C. McAdam, Elaina McCartney, Timothy McConnochie, Emily McCullough, Ian McEwan, Christopher P. McKay, Sean McNair, Noureddine Melikechi, Pierre‐Yves Meslin, Michael A. Meÿer, Alissa Mezzacappa, Hayden Miller, Kristen Miller, M. E. Minitti, Michael Mischna, И. Г. Митрофанов, J. E. Moersch, Maxim Mokrousov, Antonio Molina Jurado, John E. Moores, Luis Mora‐Sotomayor, R. Mueller‐Mellin, Jan‐Peter Müller, G. M. Muñoz, M. Nachon, Sara Navarro López, R. Navarro‐González, Kenneth H. Nealson, Ara Nefian, Tony Nelson, Megan Newcombe, Claire Newman, Sergey Nikiforov, P. B. Niles, Brian Nixon, E. Noe Dobrea, T. Nolan, Dorothy Z. Oehler, A. Ollila, T. Olson, Tobias Owen, Miguel Ángel de Pablo Hernández, Alexis Paillet, E. Pallier, M. C. Palucis, T. J. Parker, Yann Parot, Kiran Patel, Mark Paton, G. Paulsen, A. A. Pavlov, Betina Pavri, Verónica Peinado-González, Robert O. Pepin, Laurent Péret, R. Pérez, G. M. Perrett, J. E. Peterson, C. Pilorget, P. Pinet, Jorge Pla‐García, Ianik Plante, Franck Poitrasson, Jouni Polkko, Radu Popa, L. Posiolova, Arik Posner, Irina Pradler, Benito Prats, В. А. Прохоров, Sharon Wilson Purdy, E. Raaen, Leon J. Radziemski, Scot Rafkin, Miguel Ramos, F. Raulin, M. A. Ravine, Günther Reitz, N. O. Rennó, M. I. Richardson, F. Robert, Kevin M. Robertson, J. A. Rodríguez‐Manfredi, Julio José Romeral-Planelló, Scott K. Rowland, David M. Rubin, M. Saccoccio, Andrew Salamon, Jennifer Sandoval, А. Б. Санин, Sara Alejandra Sans Fuentes, Lee Saper, V. Sautter, Hannu Savijärvi, Jüergen Schieber, M. E. Schmidt, W. Schmidt, Daniel Scholes, Marcel Schoppers, Susanne Schröder, S. P. Schwenzer, Eduardo Sebastian Martinez, Aaron Sengstacken, Ruslan Shterts, K. L. Siebach, T. Siili, Jeff Simmonds, Jean‐Baptiste Sirven, Susie Slavney, R. S. Sletten, M. D. Smith, Pablo Sobrón Sánchez, John Spray, S. W. Squyres, Fabien Stalport, A. Steele, Thomas Stein, J. C. Stern, Noel Stewart, S. L. S. Stipp, Kevin Stoiber, Bob Sucharski, Rob Sullivan, Roger E. Summons, V. Z. Sun, Kimberley Supulver, B. Sutter, Cyril Szopa, Florence Tan, Christopher Tate, Samuel Teinturier, Inge ten Kate, P. C. Thomas, L. M. Thompson, R. L. Tokar, M. J. Toplis, Josefina Torres Redondo, M. G. Trainer, V. I. Tretyakov, Roser Urqui-O’Callaghan, Jason Van Beek, Tessa Van Beek, S. J. VanBommel, A. Varenikov, A. R. Vasavada, Paulo Vasconcelos, Edward P. Vicenzi, Andrey Vostrukhin, Mary A. Voytek, M. Wadhwa, Jennifer Ward, C. R. Webster, E. Weigle, Danika Wellington, Francès Westall, Roger Craig Wiens, Mary Beth Wilhelm, Amy J. Williams, R. M. E. Williams, Richard B. Williams, Mike Wilson, R. F. Wimmer‐Schweingruber, Mike Wolff, Mike Wong, J. J. Wray, Megan Wu, Charles Yana, Aileen Yingst, C. Zeitlin, Robert Zimdar, María-Paz Zorzano Mier - Science 2013 cited by 673

Sedimentary rocks at Yellowknife Bay (Gale crater) on Mars include mudstone sampled by the Curiosity rover. The samples, John Klein and Cumberland, contain detrital basaltic minerals, calcium sulfates, iron oxide or hydroxides, iron sulfides, amorphous material, and trioctahedral smectites. The John Klein smectite has basal spacing of ~10 angstroms, indicating little interlayer hydration. The Cumberland smectite has basal spacing at both ~13.2 and ~10 angstroms. The larger spacing suggests a partially chloritized interlayer or interlayer magnesium or calcium facilitating H2O retention. Basaltic minerals in the mudstone are similar to those in nearby eolian deposits. However, the mudstone has far less Fe-forsterite, possibly lost with formation of smectite plus magnetite. Late Noachian/Early Hesperian or younger age indicates that clay mineral formation on Mars extended beyond Noachian time.