Mariek Schmidt, professor of Earth sciences, is among a team of researchers from around the world examining rocks on Mars to learn more about the planet’s history
BROCK UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE ************************* Mariek Schmidt is among a team of scientists from around the world exploring rocks on Mars in the hope to learn more about the history of the red planet.
A scientist on NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover mission, the Brock University professor of Earth sciences played a key role in a research study published Thursday, Aug. 25, that outlines one of the first studies of its kind conducted since the rover landed in Jezero Crater in February 2021. Additionally, Brock postdoctoral fellow Tanya Kizowski assisted in the research, led by Yang Liu of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
As part of the Mars mission, Schmidt worked with fellow scientists to help use the rover’s instruments for research and data collection. Her focus was on the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer used to determine the fine elemental composition of surface materials on Mars. “One of the big unknowns when we landed in Jezero Crater was the origin of a particular rock unit,” says Schmidt, describing a huge rock mass detectable from orbit that covers about 70,000 square kilometers of the planet’s surface. “It wasn’t until PIXL was able to analyze it that we were able to determine its origin.”
The rock contains a significant amount of olivine — a mineral rich in iron and magnesium — as well as carbonate, a carbon-containing compound that “may have some biosignature potential,” says Schmidt.
Using PIXL, the researchers determined that olivine likely formed deep underground from slowly cooling magma — or molten rock — before being exposed over time by erosion. They were also able to see how the different minerals in the igneous rock were related to each other. The minerals olivine, for example, are well-formed crystals that haven’t been eroded by wind or water, Schmidt says.
Because olivine is dense, the crystals settle down, collecting at the bottom of a magma chamber or lava flow. A second mineral arrived later, also of high temperature, and filled the spaces around the olivine. Schmidt called the discovery “eye-opening.”
“It’s a view that we’ve never had before on Mars to be able to do these kinds of tests,” she says. “We were able to show that, at least in this particular location, the widespread unit is an igneous rock.”
The rock type, she adds, is similar to that of a Martian meteorite found on Earth called chassiginite.
“We’re able to take a lot of images from Mars orbit, but ground truthing (validating the data on the ground) is really critical to being able to understand the geology of the planet, and this demonstrates that,” says Schmidt. “We don’t find a rock where life once existed, but we think it’s an important rock for understanding the history of Mars.”
Samples of the rock unit examined in the study were collected on Mars with the goal of returning them to Earth by approximately 2034. “It’s amazing to be part of this discovery – to see rocks and interpret rocks that have never been seen before that,” Schmidt says. “Basically, as a scientist, it’s a pleasure to be able to see a rock that no one else has seen before and say, ‘I know exactly what that is.’
The research team’s study, “Olivine Cumulate Exposure at the Floor of Jezero Crater, Mars,” was one of a series of research papers published Thursday by the Perseverance mission.
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