Curiosity discovers high concentration of silica in rocks on Mars; scientists puzzled

December 19, 2015

Curiosity discovers high concentration of silica in rocks on Mars; scientists puzzled

by Chuck Bednar


The Mars Rover Curiosity has recently discovered rocks that have far higher concentrations of silica than any it had analyzed since originally landing on the Red Planet more than three years ago, and now NASA is trying to find out what’s behind this unusual phenomenon.

According to the US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which announced the discovery of the silica-rich rocks Thursday in a statement, this combination of the elements silicon and oxygen makes up nearly 90 percent of the composition of some of the rocks.

While silica is common in quartz and other elements on Earth, on Mars rocks this rich in silica are “a puzzle,” according to Albert Yen, a member of the Curiosity science team at JPL. “You can boost the concentration of silica either by leaching away other ingredients while leaving the silica behind, or by bringing in silica from somewhere else.”

However, both processes “involve water,” he added. In one, acidic water would remove other substances and leave silica behind. In the other, neural or alkaline water transports silica that has already been dissolved and leaves it behind. If the JPL team can figure out which happened, Yen said, “we’ll learn more about other conditions in those ancient wet environments.”

Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113411545/curiositys-discover-of-silica-rich-rocks-has-scientists-puzzled-121915/#ixczaP5YCAsLvxKs.99