Are Martian rock formations similar to those on Earth?

[bitznbitez]

I ran into a link from a NASA page over to an Astrobiology webzine. In the article it referenced "sedimentary rock" on Mars. I don't really care about all the other claims of this article, some rather fantastic claims frankly. Rather I am interested in the use of the phrase sedimentary rock.

Have we established that martian sedimentary rock, and by that inferred its formation, is equivalent to what we commonly call sedimentary, and if so how much of observed martian rock would be classed as sedimentary ?

I'm interested in finding where martian rock formations are discussed in any substantial way...

Thanks.

 

[Simon Bridge]

It's as good as you can tell by just looking at them.

You can actually get a lot of information just googling "sedementary rocks on mars"... try scholar.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103512004885
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/290/5498/1927

There are also lectures.
Basically it depends on how much detail you want.
How about:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast04dec_2/

 

[Ophiolite]

Simon's second link provides only the abstract; the full article is behind a pay-wall, but you can access it http://www.vashonsd.org/mcmurray/science/justin/News/AAAS1927.pdf . It is worth reading.

There are many books that could address questions you may have on Martian sediments - what level of detail does your curiosity extend to?

 

[bitznbitez]

Thanks for the links. The existence of significant quantities of sedimentary rock suggests a substantial quantity of liquid on the martian surface at one time. So i wanted to be sure there weren't explinations of sedimentary in the martian context that didn't assume liquids involved in the formation. And naturally the percentage of surface rock we would call sedimentary would potentially infer the quantity of liquid historically.

 

[Chronos]

The evidence continues to mount suggesting Mars may have hosted a significant body of water in its past, particularly the northern hemisphere - re: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/17/mars-ocean-ancient-delta-water-evidence_n_3610764.html. This seems plausible given it is considered likely Mars also had a significant atmosphere in the past.

 

[davenn]

The existence of significant quantities of sedimentary rock suggests a substantial quantity of liquid on the martian surface at one time. So i wanted to be sure there weren't explinations of sedimentary in the martian context that didn't assume liquids involved in the formation.

You are looking at it too narrowly. Sedimentary deposits do not just infer water deposition ...
any material that is eroded and redeposited also falls into that category ... so ALL wind blown dust and dirt is included as well
and the Martian atmosphere is very good at that with its huge regular dust storms

cheers
Dave

 

[Chronos]

Water is not mandatory, just about any liquid will suffice.

 

[Ophiolite]

Water is not mandatory, just about any liquid will suffice.

Let's extend that to "just about any fluid will suffice" and that will include Davenn's aeolian deposition. Some of the erosional - and consequently depositional - features on Mars, including recent ones, have been attributed to carbon dioxide.

For me the interesting thing is that, regardless of the planet and hence the fluid and the solids involved, the physics leads to similar landforms and depositional structures. Think of the views of Titan provided by the Huygens lander.