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Elemental Geochemistry of Sedimentary Rocks at Yellowknife Bay, Gale Crater, Mars S. M. McLennan et al. Science 343, (2014); DOI: 10.1126/science.1244734 This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. If you wish to distribute this article to others, you can order high-quality copies for your colleagues, clients, or customers by clicking here. Permission to republish or repurpose articles or portions of articles can be obtained by following the guidelines here. The following resources related to this article are available online at www.sciencemag.org (this information is current as of January 24, 2014 ): Updated information and services, including high-resolution figures, can be found in the online version of this article at: on January 24, 2014 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6169/1244734.full.html Supporting Online Material can be found at: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2013/12/05/science.1244734.DC1.html This article cites 53 articles, 13 of which can be accessed free: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6169/1244734.full.html#ref-list-1 This article has been cited by 3 articles hosted by HighWire Press; see: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6169/1244734.full.html#related-urls www.sciencemag.org This article appears in the following subject collections: Planetary Science http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/collection/planet_sci Downloaded from Science (print ISSN 0036-8075; online ISSN 1095-9203) is published weekly, except the last week in December, by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005. Copyright 2014 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science; all rights reserved. The title Science is a registered trademark of AAAS. RESEARCH ARTICLE geochemistry of the ancient sedimentary rock succession, including its diagenetic features, preserved at Yellowknife Bay; evaluate these Elemental Geochemistry of compositions in terms of the sedimentary his- tory of this habitable paleoenvironment within Sedimentary Rocks at Yellowknife Gale crater; and place them within the context of martian surface environments early in the Bay, Gale Crater, Mars planet’s history. Yellowknife Bay Stratigraphy 1 2 3 4 5 6 S. M. McLennan, * R. B. Anderson, J. F. Bell III, J. C. Bridges, F. Calef III, J. L. Campbell, The geology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, and 7 8 9 8 10 11 12 B. C. Clark, S. Clegg, P. Conrad, A. Cousin, D. J. Des Marais, G. Dromart, M. D. Dyar, diagenetic history of Yellowknife Bay are de- 3 5,13 14 15 15 6 16 L. A. Edgar, B. L. Ehlmann, C. Fabre, O. Forni, O. Gasnault, R. Gellert, S. Gordon, scribed in (2). The sedimentary sequence, in- 17 13 18 2 1 19 J. A. Grant, J. P. Grotzinger, S. Gupta, K. E. Herkenhoff, J. A. Hurowitz, P. L. King, formally named the Yellowknife Bay formation, is 20 21 22 23 20 24 S. Le Mouélic, L. A. Leshin, R. Léveillé, K. W. Lewis, N. Mangold, S. Maurice, subdivided into three members (Fig. 1) that like- 25 25 20 16 16 6 D. W. Ming, R. V. Morris, M. Nachon, H. E. Newsom, A. M. Ollila, G. M. Perrett, ly were deposited in a prograding alluvial fan 13 26 27 13 13 28 M. S. Rice, M. E. Schmidt, S. P. Schwenzer, K. Stack, E. M. Stolper, D. Y. Sumner, fluvio-lacustrine depositional system and in- 29 6 30 5 31 A. H. Treiman, S. VanBommel, D. T. Vaniman, A. Vasavada, R. C. Wiens, fluenced by at least two distinct diagenetic events. 30 R. A. Yingst, MSL Science Team† The formation is likely Hesperian in age but poorly constrained and could lie in a range from Sedimentary rocks examined by the Curiosity rover at Yellowknife Bay, Mars, were derived earlyHesperian(~3.7to3.4billionyearsago),if from sources that evolved from an approximately average martian crustal composition to one part of the early Gale crater fill, to late Hesperian influenced by alkaline basalts. No evidence of chemical weathering is preserved, indicating arid, or early Amazonian (~3.4 to 1.5 billion years ago), possibly cold, paleoclimates and rapid erosion and deposition. The absence of predicted geochemical variations indicates that magnetite and phyllosilicates formed by diagenesis under low-temperature, circumneutral pH, rock-dominated aqueous conditions. Analyses of diagenetic 1Department of Geosciences, State University of New York, features (including concretions, raised ridges, and fractures) at high spatial resolution indicate that Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. 2U.S. Geological Survey, Astro- they are composed of iron- and halogen-rich components, magnesium-iron-chlorine–rich geologyScienceCenter,Flagstaff,AZ86001,USA.3School of components, and hydrated calcium sulfates, respectively. Composition of a cross-cutting dike-like Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, 4 feature is consistent with sedimentary intrusion. The geochemistry of these sedimentary rocks AZ 85287, USA. Space Research Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK. provides further evidence for diverse depositional and diagenetic sedimentary environments 5Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, during the early history of Mars. Pasadena,CA91109,USA.6Department of Physics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada. 7Space Science 8 hortly after leaving its landing site at drill cuttings. The laser-induced breakdown spec- Institute, Boulder, CO 80301, USA. Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA. Bradbury Landing in Gale crater, the Mars trometer (LIBS), part of the ChemCam remote 9NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, Science Laboratory Curiosity rover traversed sensing suite, detects atomic emission spectra USA. 10Department of Space Sciences, NASA Ames Research S 2 11 to Yellowknife Bay (1), where it encountered a from areas of ~0.1 to 0.3 mm (depending on Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA. Laboratoire de Geologié flat-lying, ~5.2-m-thick succession of weakly in- standoff distance), more than two orders of mag- de Lyon, Université de Lyon, 69364 Lyon, France. 12Department durated clastic sedimentary rocks ranging from nitude smaller than APXS. LIBS offers the ad- of Astronomy, Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA 01075, USA. 13Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California mudstones at the base to mainly sandstones at ditional capability of laser depth profiling (including Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. 14UMR 7359 the top (2). Stratigraphic relationships and sedi- surface dust removal) of up to ~1000 mm. These CNRS-Georesources, Campus des Aiguillettes, Faculté des Sci- mentary structures indicate that this coarsening- instruments provide complementary data by re- ences, BP 70239, 54506 Vandoeuvre Les Nancy Cedex, France. 15 upward succession likely represents sedimentation vealing both bulk rock compositions and com- IRAP,UniversitédeToulouse(UPS-OMP)/CNRS,9Avenuedu Colonel Roche, BP 44346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France. in an ancient fluvio-lacustrine system that would positions that can be related directly to textural 16Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, have been habitable. Also preserved is a spectrum features. NM 87131, USA. 17Center for Earth and Planetary Sciences, of diagenetic features, including concretions; void On Earth, the elemental geochemistry of National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 18 spaces with a variety of sizes, geometries, and clastic sedimentary rocks provides information Washington,DC20560,USA. Department of Earth Science “ ” and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, origins; early diagenetic fractures ( raised ridges ) central to interpreting sedimentary history, in- UK. 19Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National filled with banded (possibly silicate) cements; cluding chemical weathering history, nature and University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. 20Laboratoire de possible sedimentary dikes; and a later diagenetic composition of the sediment provenance, sedi- Planétologie et Géodynamique, LPGN/CNRS UMR 6112 and 21 fracture system filled with sulfate cements. All of ment transport, and diagenetic history (5–10). Université de Nantes, 4432 Nantes, France. School of Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA. 22Canadian these features indicate extended postdepositional In turn, geochemical understanding of these Space Agency, St.-Hubert, QC J3Y 8Y9, Canada. 23Department of aqueous fluid flow through the rocks (2). issues constrains many fundamental geological Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. Curiosity fully applied its analytical payload questions such as paleoclimates, tectonic relation- 24Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, 31400 Toulouse, France. 25NASA to investigate these sedimentary rocks and deter- ships, basin evolution, diagenetic fluid flow, and Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA. 26Department mine lithological, textural, chemical, mineralogical, even crust-mantle evolution (7, 11–15). Findings of Earth Sciences, Brock University, St. Catherines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada. 27CEPSAR, Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK. and isotopic compositions and their stratigraphic from instruments onboard the Mars Exploration 28Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Cal- relationships (2–4). The payload of Curiosity Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, orbital spectros- ifornia, Davis, CA 95616, USA. 29Lunar Planetary Science Institute, includes two instruments capable of measuring copy, and experiments using Mars-like