In-situ Mössbauer Spectroscopy with MIMOS II at Rio Tinto, Spain

2010

The Rio Tinto, located in southwest Spain, exhibits a nearly constant, acidic pHvalue along its course. Due to the formation of sulfate minerals, Rio Tinto is considered a potential analogue site for sulfate-rich regions on Mars, in particular at the landing site of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, where the ferric sulfate mineral jarosite was identified with Opportunity's Mössbauer spectrometer. Primary and secondary mineralogy was investigated in situ with portable Raman and Mössbauer spectrometers at four different Rio Tinto sampling sites. The two techniques analyse different sample portions due to their specific field of view and sampling depth and provide complementar…