Mixing relationships and the effects of secondary alteration in the Wishstone and Watchtower Classes of Husband Hill, Gusev Crater, Mars

2006

[1] The Wishstone and Watchtower Class rocks on Husband Hill preserve evidence for a geochemical relationship consistent with two-component mixing between a high Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , CaO, Na 2 O, P 2 O 5 end-member and a second end-member enriched in the elements MgO, Zn, S, Br, and Cl. The first end-member appears to be reasonably well represented by rocks of the Wishstone Class, while the second end-member is consistent with a chemical component, not represented by any lithology encountered by Spirit. The Watchtower Class appears to be an intermediate in the mixture. The concentration of the redox sensitive elements Fe and Mn display no systematic variation between rock classes, and the Fe-…