14 Mar Martian ‘blueberries’ and the connection on Earth (The Hindu)
Context:
- NASA’s Mars exploration rover named Opportunity found many small spheres on the planet back in 2004, known as Martian blueberries.
- It also studied mineralogy and observed that they were made of iron oxide compounds which are called haematites.
- Now, very similar haematites have been found in Kutch, Gujarat.
Why is this significant:
- The existence of haematites on Mars suggests that there was water.
- The haematites on Mars also reflect on the fact that the planet had an atmosphere with oxygen.
What are Haematites:
- It is one of the most copious minerals on Earth’s surface and in the form of shallow crust.
- The chemical composition of the compound is Fe2O3.
- The formation mechanism of haematite concretion (hard solid mass) is the precipitation from aqueous fluids (the solvent is liquid water).
The relation between Haematites and water:
- Haematites are widely known to form in oxidizing environments, and from the observations on Earth, it can be inferred that water must have also played a critical role in the formation of grey haematite on planet Mars.
The relation between Kutch and Mars findings:
- The ‘blueberries’ found in India and Mars share similar characteristics so far.
- Also, they have similar Jhuran formation, spherical morphology, often doublet and triplet, and similar mineralogy which is a mixture of haematite and goethite.
- Since the findings are similar in nature, it reinforces the need to use the Kutch area for further analog studies of the Martian surface to have a better understanding of our neighboring planet.
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