Sedimentary Rocks of Terra Meridiani

I am looking at "Bounce", the latest rock that the Opportunity rover
is studying.

Here is the rock complete and it doesn't look like much of anything.
http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1P1...6P2570R1M1.JPG
(Opp, Sol 63, PanCam)

Here is a close-up of a corner and you can kind of see layers if you
squint.
http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1P1...MP2571L6M1.JPG
(Opp, Sol 63, PanCam)

In this picture it looks like a precipated mineral interlayered with
volcanic ash or dust. There are no pebbles in the matrix, just tiny
sand-sized grains.
http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1M1...QP2936M2M1.JPG
(Opp, Sol 65, Microscope)

This picture here shows a distinct (sedimentary??) layer, maybe with
some ash in it -- a sedimentary layer as it were.
http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1M1...QP2956M2M1.JPG
See also but less sediment layers appearing.
http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1M1...QP2906M2M1.JPG

NASA Press Release: "Bounce -- a rock that differs significantly from
the
light rocks in the Eagle Crater outcrop -- is currently being
investigated by Opportunity. So far, the rover's miniature thermal
emission
spectrometer has revealed that it is rich in hematite."

So, "Bounce" may be a piece of bedrock rock blasted out from deep in
the crater. It would come from deeper than the rocks we saw before in
the rim of the crater which were sulphates in magnesium, iron or other
sulfate salts. These rim rocks contained hematite spherules.
"Bounce", from a layer lower than the rim rocks, is a hematite
sedimentary bedrock rock with no spherules showing.

Why would hematite spherules form in the upper sulphate layer, but not
in the lower hematite layer? Where would the chemical oxygen come
from to make the hematite?

Other pictures here...
http://www.lyle.org/mars/bysol/1-065.html

Whaddaya think?

best regards,

Michael
Mars Fossils, Pseudofossils, and Problematica
http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~weinberg/mars
The best Mars Fossils page on the Internet

"MarsFossils" wrote
So, "Bounce" may be a piece of bedrock rock blasted out from deep in
the crater. It would come from deeper than the rocks we saw before in
the rim of the crater which were sulphates in magnesium, iron or other
sulfate salts. These rim rocks contained hematite spherules.
"Bounce", from a layer lower than the rim rocks, is a hematite
sedimentary bedrock rock with no spherules showing.

If you look at this false-color shot, where the blueberries appear very
blue, there is at least one berry showing in the top of Bounce:

http://copperas.com/astro/bagrock3_uncal.jpg

Other interesting features are the "spray" pattern to the left and margin of
some kind immediately around the rock. Someone speculated that the spray is
evidence of an airbag blow-out when it struck the rock. Interesting, as a
rupture there might explain loose bits of airbag material hopping around.

Why would hematite spherules form in the upper sulphate layer, but not
in the lower hematite layer? Where would the chemical oxygen come
from to make the hematite?

Maybe hydrogen peroxide? A study of stainless steel corrosion states:

"X-ray diffraction measurements of oxide films on stainless steel specimens
exposed to H2O2 [hydrogen peroxide] and O2 environments showed.... hematite
(alpha-Fe2O3) was observed in the specimens exposed to H2O2 environment,
while magnetite (Fe3O4) was the main oxide species formed when exposed to
the O2 environment."
http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/aesj/publica..._1199-1206.pdf

Joe

Joe

"Joe Knapp" wrote in message
gy.com...

"MarsFossils" wrote
So, "Bounce" may be a piece of bedrock rock blasted out from deep in
the crater. It would come from deeper than the rocks we saw before in
the rim of the crater which were sulphates in magnesium, iron or other
sulfate salts. These rim rocks contained hematite spherules.
"Bounce", from a layer lower than the rim rocks, is a hematite
sedimentary bedrock rock with no spherules showing.

If you look at this false-color shot, where the blueberries appear very
blue, there is at least one berry showing in the top of Bounce:

http://copperas.com/astro/bagrock3_uncal.jpg


The bounce rock is the most interesting so far, we are very
close to the smoking gun here fellas.

Look at the small spheres on the rock upper center. As you continue
down to the encrustation, what looks like grains of sand dotting the
crust is instead mostly the apertures of the little spheres poking through.
You can see the outline of all the little spheres through much of the dotted crust.
Also to the right of upper center is the large slash that continues
on to the rock face.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...P2956M2M1.HTML


Now look at the encrusting sponge on the right half of this image, still living of
course.
A sponge, most soft marine organisms, fossilize eventually into hematite, I'll post
some links tonite about this aspect. It's just a matter of time until it becomes
clear
the rock encrustations are fossilized marine organisms.

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explor...sponge1_2.html


Fun fun fun


Jonathan

s



Other interesting features are the "spray" pattern to the left and margin of
some kind immediately around the rock. Someone speculated that the spray is
evidence of an airbag blow-out when it struck the rock. Interesting, as a
rupture there might explain loose bits of airbag material hopping around.

Why would hematite spherules form in the upper sulphate layer, but not
in the lower hematite layer? Where would the chemical oxygen come
from to make the hematite?

Maybe hydrogen peroxide? A study of stainless steel corrosion states:

"X-ray diffraction measurements of oxide films on stainless steel specimens
exposed to H2O2 [hydrogen peroxide] and O2 environments showed.... hematite
(alpha-Fe2O3) was observed in the specimens exposed to H2O2 environment,
while magnetite (Fe3O4) was the main oxide species formed when exposed to
the O2 environment."
http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/aesj/publica..._1199-1206.pdf

Joe

Joe

The Fauna

Long after these creatures were buried, iron sulfide filled their cavities,
duplicating fine details in all their parts. After the Cretaceous seas
withdrew, weathering processes acted on the pyrite, converting
it to limonite, and ultimately hematite.
http://www.fossilnews.com/1998/rufesnow2.html


MECHANISMS OF FOSSILIZATION OF THE SOFT-BODIED AND
LIGHTLY ARMORED FAUNAS OF THE BURGESS SHALE AND OF SOME
OTHER CLASSICAL LOCALITIES

page 10
pyrite commonly forms coatings on
some fossils (Conway Morris, 1985, 1986); pyrite often replaces sponge spicules and
dermal layers (Walcott, 1920), partially replaces hard parts of some echinoderms
(Conway Morris, 1986) and of some trilobites (Whittington, 1977; Conway Morris,
1986), and in some cases replaces whole trilobites (N. J. Butterfield, personal
commu-nication,
It is also significant for the diagenesis of silicates that although in some cases
sponge spicules retained their siliceous composition (Conway Morris, 1990), "sponge
spicules and their dermal layers are usually replaced by pyrite or coated with a thin
black film (Walcott 1920, p. 265)."

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...P2959M2M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...P2933M2M1.HTML

page 24
The conditions for Burgess Shale-type preservation of soft-bodied and lightly
armored fauna can be clarified by comparison with the preservation of animal
morphology by the replacement of soft tissues with pyrite, herein referred to as the
Hunsru¨ ck Slate-type of fossilization. Pyritization of animal remains occurs by a
two-step process: first, oxidation of organic matter by
sulfate-reducing bacteria,

SO2- + 2CH2O HS- + HCO3- + H2CO3 (6)

and, second, precipitation of the produced sulfide ions by reaction with
dissolved Fe 2+ ions,

2HS- + Fe 2+ = FeS2


page 27
A combination of two factors is critical to soft-tissue preservation, rapid burial,
and sediment chemistry. Carcasses must be buried rapidly to avoid breakdown
by benthic scavengers under oxic conditions. The surrounding sediment
must contain (1) low concentrations of available organic matter
(hence pyrite formation is organic matter-limited, and residual
dissolved iron and sulfate can migrate to the decay site) and
(2) unusually high concentration of iron that is reactive toward
dissolved sulfide, permitting rapid and efficient pyritization of the
soft tissue
(Briggs and others, 1996, p. 657-658).
http://www.geology.yale.edu/~ajs/200...0801000683.PDF




Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIII (2002)

Introduction: Terrestrial banded iron formations
(BIF) preserve some of the fragile remnants of the earliest
life on Earth. Hematitic deposits are present on
the martian surface [1] so BIFs may be analogs for
identifying both conditions of hematite precipitation
and evidence of primitive biologic activity in martian
rocks. siderite
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2002/pdf/1357.pdf




Could bacteria have formed the Precambrian
banded iron formations?
page 2

This work is the first to show quantitatively that direct microbial
Fe 21 oxidation had the potential to generate the bulk, if not all, of the
ferric iron in BIFs. This work, however, does not even consider the
passive roles that other bacteria may have played, such as biologically
induced biomineralization, whereby bacterial surfaces would have sim-ply
served as nucleation sites for iron mineralization (Konhauser and
Ferris, 1996; Warren and Ferris, 1998; Konhauser, 1998). Clearly, microorganisms
had the means to be important agents in iron deposition,
and their effect must now be considered as a demonstrable mechanism
for BIF development in the Precambrian.
http://faculty.eas.ualberta.ca/konha...eology2002.pdf

Joe makes this astute observation, that I accept.
If you look at this false-color shot, where the blueberries appear very
blue, there is at least one berry showing in the top of Bounce:

http://copperas.com/astro/bagrock3_uncal.jpg

There is also a second spherule in Opportunity sol 67 microscopic
pictures, at the upper left.
http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1M1...9M2M1.JPG.html

So even the hematite has spherules.

Michael innocently asks
Where would the chemical oxygen come from to make the hematite?

Joe makes the daring proposal
Maybe hydrogen peroxide?

Hydrogen peroxide solution in the martian seas. It reacts with the
Fe+2 ferrous and/or Fe+3 ferric ions to make the hematite. Does this
make sense? Are there any geochemists reading this that would care to
comment?

best regards,

Michael
Mars Fossils, Pseudofossils, and Problematica
http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~weinberg/mars
The best Mars Fossils page on the Internet

"jonathan" wrote in message
...

The Fauna

It is not enough to find selective quotes which
you can use indiscriminatly.
You must also actively address opposing the
models. You have not even attempted to
refute the concretion model and you have
not shown any real evidence of even
considering it.
You promised you could - but you haven't.
Thus, you still fail.

"Chosp" wrote in message news:R%pbc.37606$wl1.17662@fed1read06...

"jonathan" wrote in message
...

The Fauna

It is not enough to find selective quotes which
you can use indiscriminatly.
You must also actively address opposing the
models. You have not even attempted to
refute the concretion model and you have
not shown any real evidence of even
considering it.


The idea these are hematite concretions is too ridiculous
to consider seriously. They form inside rock layers and
weather out as lag deposits. Yet the only missing layers
I see at meridiani is the loose sand that likely was left
behind when the sea withdrew, and was blown away.
Leaving behind what we see now.

The fact the spheres lie uphill of the eagle outcrops is
pretty clear evidence the spheres came from some other
structure. The only other suitable candidate is endurance
crater a half mile away. Explain how they migrated that far?




You promised you could - but you haven't.
Thus, you still fail.\


The case for life is growing daily, recent life. The bounce
rock images are also rather complex, can you explain all
the structure with geology, please try?


Jonathan

s

"jonathan" wrote in message
...

The idea these are hematite concretions is too ridiculous
to consider seriously.

You have not considered it seriously, as expected.
You have failed again.

"Chosp" wrote in message
news:K_Wbc.40414$wl1.23290@fed1read06...

"jonathan" wrote in message
...

The idea these are hematite concretions is too ridiculous
to consider seriously.

You have not considered it seriously, as expected.
You have failed again.



The idea that Johnathan knows a concretion from a sponge from a hole in his head
is too ridiculous to consider him seriously.