Constraints on the composition and particle size of chloride salt‐bearing deposits on Mars

Abstract

AbstractChloride salt‐bearing deposits on Mars were discovered using the Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) and have been characterized by both mid‐infrared (MIR) and visible‐to‐near‐infrared (VNIR) remote sensing instruments. The chloride salt‐bearing deposits exhibit a blue slope at MIR wavelengths and a featureless red slope at VNIR wavelengths. These deposits also lack strong 3 µm bands in VNIR spectra, indicating that they are desiccated compared to the surrounding regolith. The lack of VNIR spectral features suggests that an anhydrous chloride salt, the most likely of which is halite, is responsible for the observed spectral slope. In this work, we use laboratory spectra and a hybrid T‐matrix/Hapke light scattering model to constrain the particle sizes and salt abundances of the Martian chloride salt‐bearing deposits. Our work shows that the two broad spectral classes of these deposits observed by THEMIS can be explained by a difference in the particle size of the admixed silicate regolith. In all cases, chloride salt abundances of 10–25% are required to match the THEMIS data. The chloride salt abundances determined in this work suggest deposition in a lacustrine/playa setting or in association with late‐stage groundwater upwelling.