Similarities Across Mars: Acidic Fluids at Both Meridiani Planum and Gale Crater in the Formation of Magnesium-Nickel Sulfates
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In-situ identification of sulfates at the martian surface by the Mars Exploration Rovers and the Mars Science Laboratory have included calcium sulfates with various states of hydration (gypsum, bassanite, anhydrite), iron sulfates of likely fumarolic origin, massive deposits of iron hydroxysulfates indicative of an acidic history, and minor occurrences of magnesium sulfates. Recent measurements by the Opportunity and Curiosity Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometers (APXS) have indicated the presence of Ni-substituted Mg-sulfates at the Meridiani Planum and Gale Crater landing sites. The Opportunity rover has traversed nearly 43 km and is currently exploring the impact breccias of the rim of Endeavour crater, near a location where signatures of aqueous alteration have been established from orbit. APXS analyses of subsurface materials excavated by a rover wheel show clear evidence for a Mg(Ni)-sulfate with Mg:Ni (is) approximately 100:1 (molar). On the other side of the planet, Curiosity is continuing its climb up Mount Sharp after driving (is) approximately 13 km since landing. Over the last 4 km of the traverse, there have been multiple chemical analyses of erosionally-resistant nodules and dendritic features in a finely laminated mudstone unit which also indicate Mg(Ni)-sulfate (Mg:Ni (is) approximately 30:1, molar). The geologic settings for the Endeavour rim and the Mount Sharp mudstones are clearly different, but similar formation conditions for these sulfates may be possible. Ni(2+) readily substitutes for Mg(2+) in a variety of geochemical processes due to their comparable ionic radii. The availability of soluble Ni at the time of Mg-sulfate precipitation suggests acidic solutions. The fluids responsible for alteration in the Endeavour rim and for the formation of nodules in Gale mudstones may have had similar chemical characteristics at the time the Mg-sulfates were formed.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".