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Perl SM, Celestian AJ, Cockell CS, Corsetti FA, Barge LM, Bottjer D, Filiberto J, Baxter BK, Kanik I, Potter-McIntyre S, Weber JM, Rodriguez LE, Melwani Daswani M. A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses. Astrobiology 2021; 21:954-967. [PMID: 34357788 PMCID: PMC8403179 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2020.2318] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
As the exploration of Mars and other worlds for signs of life has increased, the need for a common nomenclature and consensus has become significantly important for proper identification of nonterrestrial/non-Earth biology, biogenic structures, and chemical processes generated from biological processes. The fact that Earth is our single data point for all life, diversity, and evolution means that there is an inherent bias toward life as we know it through our own planet's history. The search for life "as we don't know it" then brings this bias forward to decision-making regarding mission instruments and payloads. Understandably, this leads to several top-level scientific, theoretical, and philosophical questions regarding the definition of life and what it means for future life detection missions. How can we decide on how and where to detect known and unknown signs of life with a single biased data point? What features could act as universal biosignatures that support Darwinian evolution in the geological context of nonterrestrial time lines? The purpose of this article is to generate an improved nomenclature for terrestrial features that have mineral/microbial interactions within structures and to confirm which features can only exist from life (biotic), features that are modified by biological processes (biogenic), features that life does not affect (abiotic), and properties that can exist or not regardless of the presence of biology (abiogenic). These four categories are critical in understanding and deciphering future returned samples from Mars, signs of potential extinct/ancient and extant life on Mars, and in situ analyses from ocean worlds to distinguish and separate what physical structures and chemical patterns are due to life and which are not. Moreover, we discuss hypothetical detection and preservation environments for extant and extinct life, respectively. These proposed environments will take into account independent active and ancient in situ detection prospects by using previous planetary exploration studies and discuss the geobiological implications within an astrobiological context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scott M. Perl
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- Mineral Sciences, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Blue Marble Space Institute for Science, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Address correspondence to: Scott M. Perl, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, +USA
| | - Aaron J. Celestian
- Mineral Sciences, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Charles S. Cockell
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
| | - Frank A. Corsetti
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Laura M. Barge
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- Blue Marble Space Institute for Science, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - David Bottjer
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | | | - Bonnie K. Baxter
- Great Salt Lake Institute, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
| | - Isik Kanik
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
| | - Sally Potter-McIntyre
- School of Earth Systems and Sustainability, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois, USA
| | - Jessica M. Weber
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
| | - Laura E. Rodriguez
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
| | - Mohit Melwani Daswani
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
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Rivera-Valentín EG, Filiberto J, Lynch KL, Mamajanov I, Lyons TW, Schulte M, Méndez A. Introduction-First Billion Years: Habitability. Astrobiology 2021; 21:893-905. [PMID: 34406807 PMCID: PMC8403211 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2020.2314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2020] [Accepted: 12/22/2020] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The physical processes active during the first billion years (FBY) of Earth's history, such as accretion, differentiation, and impact cratering, provide constraints on the initial conditions that were conducive to the formation and establishment of life on Earth. This motivated the Lunar and Planetary Institute's FBY topical initiative, which was a four-part conference series intended to look at each of these physical processes to study the basic structure and composition of our Solar System that was set during the FBY. The FBY Habitability conference, held in September 2019, was the last in this series and was intended to synthesize the initiative; specifically, to further our understanding of the origins of life, planetary and environmental habitability, and the search for life beyond Earth. The conference included discussions of planetary habitability and the potential emergence of life on bodies within our Solar System, as well as extrasolar systems by applying our knowledge of the Solar System's FBY, and in particular Earth's early history. To introduce this Special Collection, which resulted from work discussed at the conference, we provide a review of the main themes and a synopsis of the FBY Habitability conference.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Justin Filiberto
- Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Kennda L. Lynch
- Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Irena Mamajanov
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Timothy W. Lyons
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, USA
| | - Mitch Schulte
- Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Abel Méndez
- Planetary Habitability Laboratory, University of Puerto Rico Arecibo, Arecibo, Puerto Rico
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Méndez A, Rivera-Valentín EG, Schulze-Makuch D, Filiberto J, Ramírez RM, Wood TE, Dávila A, McKay C, Ceballos KNO, Jusino-Maldonado M, Torres-Santiago NJ, Nery G, Heller R, Byrne PK, Malaska MJ, Nathan E, Simões MF, Antunes A, Martínez-Frías J, Carone L, Izenberg NR, Atri D, Chitty HIC, Nowajewski-Barra P, Rivera-Hernández F, Brown CY, Lynch KL, Catling D, Zuluaga JI, Salazar JF, Chen H, González G, Jagadeesh MK, Haqq-Misra J. Habitability Models for Astrobiology. Astrobiology 2021; 21:1017-1027. [PMID: 34382857 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2020.2342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Habitability has been generally defined as the capability of an environment to support life. Ecologists have been using Habitat Suitability Models (HSMs) for more than four decades to study the habitability of Earth from local to global scales. Astrobiologists have been proposing different habitability models for some time, with little integration and consistency among them, being different in function to those used by ecologists. Habitability models are not only used to determine whether environments are habitable, but they also are used to characterize what key factors are responsible for the gradual transition from low to high habitability states. Here we review and compare some of the different models used by ecologists and astrobiologists and suggest how they could be integrated into new habitability standards. Such standards will help improve the comparison and characterization of potentially habitable environments, prioritize target selections, and study correlations between habitability and biosignatures. Habitability models are the foundation of planetary habitability science, and the synergy between ecologists and astrobiologists is necessary to expand our understanding of the habitability of Earth, the Solar System, and extrasolar planets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abel Méndez
- Planetary Habitability Laboratory, University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, USA
| | | | - Dirk Schulze-Makuch
- Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section Geomicrobiology, Potsdam, Germany; Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Stechlin, Germany
| | | | - Ramses M Ramírez
- University of Central Florida, Department of Physics, Orlando, Florida, USA; Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| | - Tana E Wood
- USDA Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA
| | - Alfonso Dávila
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
| | - Chris McKay
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
| | - Kevin N Ortiz Ceballos
- Planetary Habitability Laboratory, University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, USA
| | | | | | | | - René Heller
- Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research; Institute for Astrophysics, University of Göttingen, Germany
| | - Paul K Byrne
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Michael J Malaska
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
| | - Erica Nathan
- Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
| | - Marta Filipa Simões
- State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau SAR, China
| | - André Antunes
- State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau SAR, China
| | | | | | - Noam R Izenberg
- Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, USA
| | - Dimitra Atri
- Center for Space Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | | | | | | | | | - Kennda L Lynch
- Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, Houston, Texas, USA
| | | | - Jorge I Zuluaga
- Institute of Physics / FCEN - Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
| | - Juan F Salazar
- GIGA, Escuela Ambiental, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
| | - Howard Chen
- Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
| | - Grizelle González
- USDA Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA
| | | | - Jacob Haqq-Misra
- Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, Washington, USA
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Costello LJ, Filiberto J, Crandall JR, Potter-McIntyre SL, Schwenzer SP, Miller MA, Hummer DR, Olsson-Francis K, Perl S. Habitability of Hydrothermal Systems at Jezero and Gusev Craters as Constrained by Hydrothermal Alteration of a Terrestrial Mafic Dike. Chem Erde 2020; 80:125613. [PMID: 33299255 PMCID: PMC7720477 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemer.2020.125613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
NASA's search for habitable environments has focused on alteration mineralogy of the Martian crust and the formation of hydrous minerals, because they reveal information about the fluid and environmental conditions from which they precipitated. Extensive work has focused on the formation of alteration minerals at low temperatures, with limited work investigating metamorphic or high-temperature alteration. We have investigated such a site as an analog for Mars: a mafic dike on the Colorado Plateau that was hydrothermally altered from contact with groundwater as it was emplaced in the porous and permeable Jurassic Entrada sandstone. Our results show evidence for fluid mobility removing Si and K but adding S, Fe, Ca, and possibly Mg to the system as alteration progresses. Mineralogically, all samples contain calcite, hematite, and kaolinite; with most samples containing minor anatase, barite, halite, and dolomite. The number of alteration minerals increase with alteration. The hydrothermal system that formed during interaction of the magma (heat source) and groundwater would have been a habitable environment once the system cooled below ~120° C. The mineral assemblage is similar to alteration minerals seen within the Martian crust from orbit, including those at Gusev and Jezero Craters. Therefore, based on our findings, and extrapolating them to the Martian crust, these sites may represent habitable environments which would call for further exploration and sample return of such hydrothermally altered igneous materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lacey J. Costello
- Southern Illinois University, Department of Geology, 1259 Lincoln Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA
| | - Justin Filiberto
- Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058, USA
| | - Jake R. Crandall
- Eastern Illinois University, Department of Geology and Geography, Physical Science Building, 600 Lincoln Ave., Charleston, IL 61920, USA
| | - Sally L. Potter-McIntyre
- Southern Illinois University, Department of Geology, 1259 Lincoln Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA
| | - Susanne P. Schwenzer
- School of Environment, Earth, and Ecosystems Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
| | - Michael A. Miller
- Materials Engineering Department, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238, USA
| | - Daniel R. Hummer
- Southern Illinois University, Department of Geology, 1259 Lincoln Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA
| | - Karen Olsson-Francis
- School of Environment, Earth, and Ecosystems Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
| | - Scott Perl
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109-8001, USA
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Filiberto J, Trang D, Treiman AH, Gilmore MS. Present-day volcanism on Venus as evidenced from weathering rates of olivine. Sci Adv 2020; 6:eaax7445. [PMID: 31922004 PMCID: PMC6941908 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax7445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Accepted: 11/07/2019] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
At least some of Venus' lava flows are thought to be <2.5 million years old based on visible to near-infrared (VNIR) emissivity measured by the Venus Express spacecraft. However, the exact ages of these flows are poorly constrained because the rate at which olivine alters at Venus surface conditions, and how that alteration affects VNIR spectra, remains unknown. We obtained VNIR reflectance spectra of natural olivine that was altered and oxidized in the laboratory. We show that olivine becomes coated, within days, with alteration products, primarily hematite (Fe2O3). With increasing alteration, the VNIR 1000-nm absorption, characteristic of olivine, also weakens within days. Our results indicate that lava flows lacking VNIR features due to hematite are no more than several years old. Therefore, Venus is volcanically active now.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin Filiberto
- Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058, USA
- Corresponding author.
| | - David Trang
- University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa/Hawai’i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, 1680 East-West Rd., Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
| | - Allan H. Treiman
- Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058, USA
| | - Martha S. Gilmore
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan University, 265 Church Street, Middletown, CT 06457, USA
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6
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Ogliore RC, Dwyer C, Krawczynski MJ, Couvy H, Eisele M, Filiberto J. Identification of Large Isotope Anomalies in Quartz by Infrared Spectroscopy. Appl Spectrosc 2019; 73:767-773. [PMID: 31107100 DOI: 10.1177/0003702819842558] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
We report an infrared (IR) spectroscopic technique to detect quartz grains with large isotope anomalies. We synthesized isotopically doped quartz and used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) in two different instruments: a traditional far-field instrument and a neaSpec nanoFT-IR, to quantify the shift in the peak of the Si-O stretch near 780 cm-1 as a function of isotope composition, and the uncertainty in this shift. From these measurements, we estimated the minimum detectable isotope anomaly using FT-IR. The described technique can be used to nondestructively detect very small (30 nm) presolar grains. In particular, supernova grains, which can have very large isotope anomalies, are detectable by this method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan C Ogliore
- 1 Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Cosette Dwyer
- 2 W. M. Keck Science Department, Scripps College, Claremont, CA, USA
| | - Michael J Krawczynski
- 3 Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Hélène Couvy
- 3 Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
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7
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Treiman AH, Bish DL, Vaniman DT, Chipera SJ, Blake DF, Ming DW, Morris RV, Bristow TF, Morrison SM, Baker MB, Rampe EB, Downs RT, Filiberto J, Glazner AF, Gellert R, Thompson LM, Schmidt ME, Le Deit L, Wiens RC, McAdam AC, Achilles CN, Edgett KS, Farmer JD, Fendrich KV, Grotzinger JP, Gupta S, Morookian JM, Newcombe ME, Rice MS, Spray JG, Stolper EM, Sumner DY, Vasavada AR, Yen AS. Mineralogy, provenance, and diagenesis of a potassic basaltic sandstone on Mars: CheMin X-ray diffraction of the Windjana sample (Kimberley area, Gale Crater). J Geophys Res Planets 2016; 121:75-106. [PMID: 27134806 PMCID: PMC4845591 DOI: 10.1002/2015je004932] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2015] [Revised: 12/10/2015] [Accepted: 12/21/2015] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
The Windjana drill sample, a sandstone of the Dillinger member (Kimberley formation, Gale Crater, Mars), was analyzed by CheMin X-ray diffraction (XRD) in the MSL Curiosity rover. From Rietveld refinements of its XRD pattern, Windjana contains the following: sanidine (21% weight, ~Or95); augite (20%); magnetite (12%); pigeonite; olivine; plagioclase; amorphous and smectitic material (~25%); and percent levels of others including ilmenite, fluorapatite, and bassanite. From mass balance on the Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) chemical analysis, the amorphous material is Fe rich with nearly no other cations-like ferrihydrite. The Windjana sample shows little alteration and was likely cemented by its magnetite and ferrihydrite. From ChemCam Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) chemical analyses, Windjana is representative of the Dillinger and Mount Remarkable members of the Kimberley formation. LIBS data suggest that the Kimberley sediments include at least three chemical components. The most K-rich targets have 5.6% K2O, ~1.8 times that of Windjana, implying a sediment component with >40% sanidine, e.g., a trachyte. A second component is rich in mafic minerals, with little feldspar (like a shergottite). A third component is richer in plagioclase and in Na2O, and is likely to be basaltic. The K-rich sediment component is consistent with APXS and ChemCam observations of K-rich rocks elsewhere in Gale Crater. The source of this sediment component was likely volcanic. The presence of sediment from many igneous sources, in concert with Curiosity's identifications of other igneous materials (e.g., mugearite), implies that the northern rim of Gale Crater exposes a diverse igneous complex, at least as diverse as that found in similar-age terranes on Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - David L Bish
- Department of Geological Sciences Indiana University Bloomington Indiana USA
| | | | | | - David F Blake
- NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field California USA
| | - Doug W Ming
- Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division NASA Johnson Space Center Houston Texas USA
| | - Richard V Morris
- Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division NASA Johnson Space Center Houston Texas USA
| | | | | | - Michael B Baker
- Division of Geologic and Planetary Sciences California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA
| | - Elizabeth B Rampe
- Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division NASA Johnson Space Center Houston Texas USA
| | - Robert T Downs
- Department of Geosciences University of Arizona Tucson Arizona USA
| | - Justin Filiberto
- Department of Geology Southern Illinois University Carbondale Illinois USA
| | - Allen F Glazner
- Department of Geological Sciences University of North Carolina Chapel Hill North Carolina USA
| | - Ralf Gellert
- Department of Physics University of Guelf Guelph Ontario Canada
| | - Lucy M Thompson
- Department of Earth Sciences University of New Brunswick Fredericton New Brunswick Canada
| | - Mariek E Schmidt
- Department of Earth Sciences Brock University St. Catharines Ontario Canada
| | - Laetitia Le Deit
- Laboratoire Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes, LPGN/CNRS UMR6112, and Université de Nantes Nantes France
| | - Roger C Wiens
- Space Remote Sensing Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico USA
| | - Amy C McAdam
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt Maryland USA
| | - Cherie N Achilles
- Department of Geological Sciences Indiana University Bloomington Indiana USA
| | | | - Jack D Farmer
- School of Earth and Space Exploration Arizona State University Tempe Arizona USA
| | - Kim V Fendrich
- Department of Geosciences University of Arizona Tucson Arizona USA
| | - John P Grotzinger
- Division of Geologic and Planetary Sciences California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA
| | - Sanjeev Gupta
- Department of Earth Science and Engineering Imperial College London UK
| | | | - Megan E Newcombe
- Division of Geologic and Planetary Sciences California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA
| | - Melissa S Rice
- Department of Earth Sciences Western Washington University Bellingham Washington USA
| | - John G Spray
- Department of Earth Sciences University of New Brunswick Fredericton New Brunswick Canada
| | - Edward M Stolper
- Division of Geologic and Planetary Sciences California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA
| | - Dawn Y Sumner
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences University of California Davis California USA
| | - Ashwin R Vasavada
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA
| | - Albert S Yen
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA
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