Field analogue geology and astrobiology in support of mars science laboratory: Correlation of organics with topographic units

In August of 2012 the Curiosity rover with the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) instruments landed successfully on Mars. The goals of the mission are to investigate the history of habitable conditions on early Mars and to characterize the geology of the planet. The focus will lie in the investigation of specific minerals that are related to the presence of organic matter and water. A Mars analogue terrain was investigated to support this mission in its selection of sampling sites most likely to preserve organic matter (possibly indicative of life). We shall report on results from ILEWG EuroMoonMars campaigns in February-March 2012 from the area around the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah, USA (Canyonlands area), a region known for its geomorphological and geochemical similarity to Mars. Since depositional environment, geology and mineralogy influence the detection of organic matter, soil and rock samples were collected from different topographic units within a single geological unit, the Brushy Basin member. The objective of this study is to determine whether Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR) is a reliable method to determine the mineralogy. The focus will be on the detection of clays and their relation to organics. The units chosen are on a plain, below a cliff and within a canyon. The different topographic units are similar to the topographic units MSL will visit in Gale Crater on Mars and hence the results will be relevant to this mission. This study showed that clays are mostly found in the Canyon and Base of Mountain samples. The Canyon samples showed the largest abundance of Montmorillonite and Illite present in the Base of Mountain samples. Organics could not be detected with FT-IR alone; a combination of other techniques is currently used for the identification of small organic compounds.