Shock‐induced color changes in nontronite: Implications for the Martian fines

Abstract

Riverside nontronite, a candidate for the major mineral in the Martian fines, becomes both redder and darker upon shock loading between 180 and 300 kbar. The change from olive‐yellow (2.5 Y 6/6) to strong brown (7.5 YR 4/6) in the 300‐kbar sample brackets the range of color observed at the Viking lander sites. Optical microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, optical, infrared, and 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy were applied to understand the physical basis of the color change. The Riverside nontronite experienced partial dehydroxylation, probably due to shock‐induced heating, that changed the coordination of the Fe 3+ in the octahedral layer of the clay to a mixture of 4‐ and 6‐fold or a distorted 5‐fold coordination. These changes in the clay cause the O 2− ‐Fe 3+ charge transfer absorption edge to shift from the near ultraviolet into the visible, producing a redder and darker phase. The absorption spectra of both impacted and nonimpacted Riverside nontronite contains the basic features of the reflectance spectra of the bright regions of Mars: a steep drop in absorption from the near UV into the visible and a featureless near IR region. Calculations indicate that significant impact induced color changes (and dehydration) can occur on Mars, though it seems likely that the mechanism would be more effective, volumetrically, at producing variations in color rather than affecting the absolute color.