Volatile, Isotope, and Organic Analysis of Martian Fines with the Mars Curiosity Rover

Authors: L. A. Leshin, P. R. Mahaffy, C. R. Webster, M. Cabane, P. Coll, P. G. Conrad, P. D. Archer, S. K. Atreya, A. Brunner, A. Buch, J. L. Eigenbrode, Gregory J. Flesch, H. B. Franz, Caroline Freissinet, D. P. Glavin, A. C. McAdam, Kristen Miller, D. W. Ming, R. V. Morris, R. Navarro‐González, P. B. Niles, Tobias Owen, R. O. Pepin, S. W. Squyres, A. Steele, J. C. Stern, Roger E. Summons, D. Y. Sumner, B. Sutter, Cyril Szopa, Samuel Teinturier, M. G. Trainer, J. J. Wray, J. P. Grotzinger, MSL Science Team, Osku Kemppinen, Nathan Bridges, J. R. Johnson, M. E. Minitti, David A. Cremers, J. F. Bell, Lauren Edgar, Jack Farmer, Austin Godber, M. Wadhwa, Danika Wellington, Ian McEwan, Claire Newman, M. I. Richardson, Antoine Charpentier, Laurent Péret, P. L. King, Jennifer G. Blank, Gerald Weigle, M. E. Schmidt, Shuai Li, R. E. Milliken, Kevin M. Robertson, V. Z. Sun, Michael Baker, Christopher S. Edwards, Bethany Ehlmann, Kenneth A. Farley, J. L. Griffes, Hayden Miller, Megan Newcombe, Cedric Pilorget, M. S. Rice, Kirsten Siebach, Katie Stack, Edward M. Stolper, C. Brunet, Victoria Hipkin, Richard Léveillé, Geneviève Marchand, Pablo Sobrón Sánchez, Laurent Favot, George D. Cody, Lorenzo Flückiger, David Lees, Ara Nefian, Mildred Martin, M. Gailhanou, Francès Westall, Guy Israël, Christophe Agard, Julien Baroukh, Christophe Donny, Alain Gaboriaud, Philippe Guillemot, Vivian Lafaille, Eric Lorigny, Alexis Paillet, R. Pérez, M. Saccoccio, Charles Yana, Carlos Armiens‐Aparicio, Javier Rodríguez, Isaías Carrasco Blázquez, Felipe Gómez, Javier Gómez‐Elvira, Sebastian Hettrich, Alain Lepinette Malvitte, Mercedes Marín Jiménez, Jesús Martínez‐Frías, Javier Martín-Soler, Javier Martín‐Torres, Antonio Molina Jurado, Luis Mora‐Sotomayor, G. M. Muñoz, Sara Navarro López, Verónica Peinado-González, Jorge Pla-García, J. A. Rodríguez‐Manfredi, Julio José Romeral-Planelló, Sara Alejandra Sans Fuentes, Eduardo Sebastian Martinez, Josefina Torres Redondo, Roser Urqui-O’Callaghan, María-Paz Zorzano Mier, S. J. Chipera, Jean-Luc Lacour, P. Mauchien, Jean‐Baptiste Sirven, H. L. K. Manning, Alberto González Fairén, Alexander G. Hayes, Jonathan Joseph, R. Sullivan, P. C. Thomas, Audrey Dupont, Angela Lundberg, Noureddine Melikechi, Alissa Mezzacappa, Julia DeMarines, David Grinspoon, Günther Reitz, Benito Prats, Evgeny Atlaskin, Maria Genzer, Ari‐Matti Harri, Harri Haukka, Henrik Kahanpää, Janne Kauhanen, Osku Kemppinen, Mark Paton, Jouni Polkko, Walter Schmidt, T. Siili, C. Fabre, Mary Beth Wilhelm, Franck Poitrasson, Kiran Patel, Stephen Gorevan, Stephen Indyk, G. Paulsen, Sanjeev Gupta, D. L. Bish, Juergen Schieber, Brigitte Gondet, Yves Langevin, Claude Geffroy, David Baratoux, Gilles Berger, Alain Cros, C. d’Uston, O. Forni, O. Gasnault, Jérémie Lasue, Qiu-Mei Lee, S. Maurice, Pierre-Yves Meslin, E. Pallier, Yann Parot, P. Pinet, Susanne Schröder, M. J. Toplis, Éric Lewin, Will Brunner, Ezat Heydari, Cherie Achilles, Dorothy Z. Oehler, David Coscia, Guy Israël, Gilles Dromart, François Robert, V. Sautter, Stéphane Le Mouëlic, N. Mangold, Marion Nachon, Fabien Stalport, Pascaline François, F. Raulin, James F. Cameron, Sam Clegg, A. Cousin, Dorothea DeLapp, Robert Dingler, Ryan Steele Jackson, Stephen Johnstone, N. Lanza, Cynthia Little, Tony Nelson, R. C. Wiens, Richard B. Williams, Andrea Jones, L. E. Kirkland, A. H. Treiman, Burt Baker, Bruce Cantor, M. A. Caplinger, Scott Davis, Brian Duston, Kenneth Edgett, Donald Fay, C. Hardgrove, D. E. Harker, Paul Herrera, Elsa Jensen, M. R. Kennedy, Gillian Krezoski, Daniel Krysak, Leslie Lipkaman, M. C. Malin, Elaina McCartney, Sean McNair, Brian Nixon, Liliya Posiolova, Michael Ravine, Andrew Salamon, Lee Saper, Kevin Stoiber, Kimberley Supulver, Jason Van Beek, Tessa Van Beek, Robert Zimdar, Katherine L. French, Karl Iagnemma, Fred Goesmann, W. Goetz, S. F. Hviid, Micah Johnson, Matthew Lefavor, Eric Lyness, Elly Breves, M. D. Dyar, C. I. Fassett, D. F. Blake, T. F. Bristow, David J. DesMarais, Laurence Edwards, Robert Haberle, Tori M. Hoehler, Jeff Hollingsworth, M. A. Kahre, Leslie Keely, Christopher P. McKay, Mary Beth Wilhelm, L. V. Bleacher, W. B. Brinckerhoff, David Choi, Jason P. Dworkin, Melissa Floyd, J. B. Garvin, Daniel Harpold, Andrea Jones, David K. Martin, Alexander A. Pavlov, E. Raaen, Michael D. Smith, Florence Tan, Michael A. Meÿer, Arik Posner, Mary Voytek, Robert C. Anderson, A. D. Aubrey, L. W. Beegle, Alberto Behar, D. L. Blaney, D. E. Brinza, F. J. Calef, L. E. Christensen, J. A. Crisp, Lauren DeFlores, Bethany Ehlmann, Jason Feldman, Sabrina Feldman, J. A. Hurowitz, I. Jun, Didier Keymeulen, Justin Maki, Michael Mischna, John Michael Morookian, T. J. Parker, Betina Pavri, Marcel Schoppers, Aaron Sengstacken, John J. Simmonds, N. Spanovich, Manuel de la Torre Juárez, A. R. Vasavada, Albert Yen, Francis A. Cucinotta, John H. Jones, E. B. Rampe, Thomas Nolan, M. R. Fisk, Leon J. Radziemski, Bruce Barraclough, Steve Bender, D. C. Berman, Eldar Noe Dobrea, R. L. Tokar, D. T. Vaniman, R. M. E. Williams, Aileen Yingst, K. W. Lewis, T. Cleghorn, Wesley T. Huntress, Gérard Manhès, Judy Hudgins, Timothy M. Olson, Noel Stewart, Philippe Sarrazin, J. A. Grant, Edward P. Vicenzi, Sharon A. Wilson, Mark Bullock, Bent Ehresmann, V. E. Hamilton, Donald M. Hassler, Joseph G. Peterson, Scot Rafkin, Cary Zeitlin, F. Fedosov, Dmitry Golovin, Natalya Karpushkina, Alexander Kozyrev, M. L. Litvak, A. Malakhov, И. Г. Митрофанов, Maxim Mokrousov, Sergey Nikiforov, В. А. Прохоров, Anton Sanin, V. I. Tretyakov, A. Varenikov, Andrey Vostrukhin, Ruslan Kuzmin, B. C. Clark, M. J. Wolff, S. M. McLennan, Oliver Botta, Darrell Drake, Keri Bean, M. T. Lemmon, S. P. Schwenzer, Ryan B. Anderson, K. E. Herkenhoff, Ella Mae Lee, Robert Sucharski, Miguel Ángel de Pablo Hernández, J. J. Blanco, Miguel Ramos, Myung-Hee Kim, C. A. Malespin, Ianik Plante, Jan‐Peter Müller, R. C. Ewing, W. V. Boynton, Robert T. Downs, Mike Fitzgibbon, K. Harshman, Shaunna M. Morrison, William Dietrich, Onno Kortmann, M. C. Palucis, Amy M. Williams, Günter Lugmair, Michael A. Wilson, David M. Rubin, B. M. Jakosky, T. Balić-Žunić, Jens Frydenvang, Jaqueline Kløvgaard Jensen, K. M. Kinch, Asmus Koefoed, M. B. Madsen, S. L. S. Stipp, Nick Boyd, John L. Campbell, R. Gellert, G. M. Perrett, Irina Pradler, S. J. VanBommel, Samantha Jacob, Scott K. Rowland, Evgeny Atlaskin, Hannu Savijärvi, Eckart Boehm, Stephan Böttcher, S. Burmeister, Jingnan Guo, Jan Köhler, César Martín García, R. Mueller‐Mellin, R. F. Wimmer‐Schweingruber, J. C. Bridges, Timothy McConnochie, M. Benna, Hannah Bower, Hannah Blau, Thomas Boucher, Marco Carmosino, Harvey Elliott, Douglas Halleaux, N. O. Rennó, Michael L. Wong, Beverley Elliott, John Spray, Lucy Thompson, Suzanne Gordon, H. E. Newsom, A. Ollila, Joshua Williams, Paulo Vasconcelos, Jennifer Bentz, Kenneth H. Nealson, Radu Popa, Linda C. Kah, J. Moersch, Christopher Tate, Mackenzie Day, Gary Kocurek, B. Hallet, R. S. Sletten, Raymond Francis, Emily McCullough, E. A. Cloutis, I. L. ten Kate, Ruslan Kuzmin, R. E. Arvidson, A. A. Fraeman, Daniel Scholes, S. Slavney, Thomas Stein, Jennifer Ward, Jeffrey Berger, John E. Moores - Science 2013 cited by 451

Samples from the Rocknest aeolian deposit were heated to ~835°C under helium flow and evolved gases analyzed by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite. H2O, SO2, CO2, and O2 were the major gases released. Water abundance (1.5 to 3 weight percent) and release temperature suggest that H2O is bound within an amorphous component of the sample. Decomposition of fine-grained Fe or Mg carbonate is the likely source of much of the evolved CO2. Evolved O2 is coincident with the release of Cl, suggesting that oxygen is produced from thermal decomposition of an oxychloride compound. Elevated δD values are consistent with recent atmospheric exchange. Carbon isotopes indicate multiple carbon sources in the fines. Several simple organic compounds were detected, but they are not definitively martian in origin.