Title

The Ci Carbonaceous Chondrites As The Missing Old Meteorites Of Mars

Keywords

ALH84001; CI meteorites; Mars; Mars meteorites; Organic matter

Abstract

The CI are ancient (4.6Gyr) hydrated clays with olivine and pyroxene grains imbedded in them and no evidence of hypervelocity impacts or chondrules. Based on isotopic and other geochemical data the CI appear to share many features with MMs (Martian Metorites) and have been considered as candidate Martian sediments. Isotopic data on CI and MM newly obtained hydrated material oxygen isotopes now shows a good match and CI anhydrous and MM anhydrous now also show good correlations. The idea of CI having an origin on Mars is not new, being actively considered by the Viking lander XRF experiment team, when they noted that a 50-50 CI and tholeitic basalt mixture gave a very good match to Viking landing site soil composition. In this paper, we will discuss this hypothesis in the light of new data from a variety of sources. If the CI s are Martian they would represent samples of the Southern Martian Highlands regolith due to their 4.6 Gyr age. Implications of a possible Martian origin of CIs will be discussed, most importantly the fact that if the CIs are Martian, then the surface Mars has large deposits of organic matter useful for terrforming. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Publication Date

12-1-2007

Publication Title

AIP Conference Proceedings

Volume

880

Number of Pages

926-932

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2437535

Socpus ID

77958021145 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/77958021145

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