Mid‐infrared transmission spectra of crystalline and nanophase iron oxides/oxyhydroxides and implications for remote sensing of Mars

Abstract

Ferric‐iron‐bearing materials play an important role in the interpretation of visible to near‐IR Mars spectra, and they may play a similarly important role in the analysis of new mid‐IR spacecraft spectral observations to be obtained over the next decade. We review existing data on mid‐IR transmission spectra of ferric oxides/oxyhydroxides and present new transmission spectra for ferric‐bearing materials spanning a wide range of mineralogy and crystallinity. These materials include 11 samples of well‐crystallized ferric oxides (hematite, maghemite, and magnetite) and ferric oxyhydroxides (goethite, lepidocrocite). We also report the first transmission spectra for purely nanophase ferric oxide samples that have been shown to exhibit spectral similarities to Mars in the visible to near‐IR and we compare these data to previous and new transmission spectra of terrestrial palagonites. Most of these samples show numerous, diagnostic absorption features in the mid‐IR due to Fe3+–O2‐ vibrational transitions, structural and/or bound OH, and/or silicates. These data indicate that high spatial resolution, moderate spectral resolution mid‐IR ground‐based and spacecraft observations of Mars may be able to detect and uniquely discriminate among different ferric‐iron‐bearing phases on the Martian surface or in the airborne dust.