Zeolite Formation and Weathering Processes Within the Martian Regolith: An Antarctic Analog

As more information is obtained about the nature of the surface compositions and processes operating on Mars, it is clear that significant erosional and depositional features are present on the surface. Apparent aqueous or other fluid activity on Mars has produced many of the erosional and outflow features observed. Evidence of aqueous activity on Mars has been reported by earlier studies. Gooding and colleagues championed the cause of pre-terrestrial aqueous alteration processes recorded in Martian meteorites. Oxygen isotope studies on Martian meteorites by Karlsson et al. and Romenek et al. gave evidence for two separate water reservoirs on Mars. The oxygen isotopic compositions of the host silicate minerals was different from the oxygen isotopic composition of the secondary alteration products within the SNC meteorites. This implied that the oxygen associated with fluids which produced the secondary alteration was from volatiles which were possibly added to the planetary inventory after formation of the primary silicates from which the SNC s were formed. The source of the oxygen may have been from a cometary or volatile-rich veneer added to the planet in its first 600 million years.