Using Reactive Transport Modeling to Understand Formation of the Stimson Sedimentary Unit and Altered Fracture Zones at Gale Crater, Mars

Abstract: Water flowing through sediments at Gale Crater, Mars created environments that were likely habitable, and sampled basin-wide hydrological systems. However, many questions remain about these environments and the fluids that generated them. Measurements taken by the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity of multiple fracture zones can help constrain the environments that formed them because they can be compared to nearby associated parent material (Figure 1). For example, measurements of altered fra…