Origin of basaltic soils at Gusev crater, Mars, by aeolian modification of impact-generated sediment

Abstract

Textural properties of soils including grain size, sorting, modality, skewness, shape (quantified as sphericity and qualified as form), roundness, and grain size distribution, have been measured and calculated from Microscopic Imager (MI) high-resolution images from the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit in Gusev crater. Soil targets were classified by grain size into five groups: fine to medium sand dark soil, medium sand to very fine pebble bed form armor, and very fine to medium pebble lithic fragments, a bimodal mixed soil, and an excavated soil trench. The abundance of submature, very poorly sorted, bimodal mixed soils indicates incomplete sorting by soil type. Probability distributions of excavated subsurface soil match crushed sediment analogs, indicating impact comminution, while all other soils show no direct evidence of an impact origin. If soils were produced primarily by impacts, then the evidence from probability distributions, angular shapes, and agglutinates have been reworked by postimpact surface activity. Soils in Gusev crater are continuously modified, reworked, and sandblasted. Textures of surface sediments are disconnected from subsurface textures and only reflect modern surficial aeolian processes. Models to reconstruct physical and chemical soil formation properties should not assume a static three-dimensional structure. A three-step model, initiated by the formation of basaltic crust and its alteration, followed by bolide impact, and finally modification by aeolian reworking is envisioned for the formation of soils. Such a scenario accounts for the potential that surface sediments may be compositionally and texturally distinct from the subsurface. Copyright © 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.