Columbia Hills (Mars)

The view of Columbia Hills from the Spirit landing site

The Columbia Hills are a range of low hills inside Gusev crater on Mars. They were observed by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit when it landed within the crater in 2004. They were promptly given an unofficial name by NASA since they were the most striking nearby feature on the surface. The hills lie approximately Template:Convert away from the rover's original landing position. The range is named to memorialize the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. On February 2, 2004, the individual peaks of the Columbia Hills were named after the seven astronauts who died in the disaster. Spirit spent a few years exploring the Columbia Hills until it ceased to function in 2010. It was also considered a potential landing site for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> before the selection of Jezero crater in November 2018.<ref name="NYT-20181119">Template:Cite news</ref>

Peaks

The seven peaks are, from north to south:

• Anderson Hill - named after Michael P. Anderson
• Brown Hill - named after David M. Brown
• Chawla Hill - named after Kalpana Chawla
• Clark Hill - named after Laurel Clark
• Husband Hill - named after Rick Husband
• McCool Hill - named after William C. McCool
• Ramon Hill - named after Ilan Ramon

Rocks and Minerals of Columbia Hills

Unlabelled overhead view of the Columbia Hills. A labelled version is available here.

With the Spirit rover, scientists found a variety of rock types in the Columbia Hills, and they placed them into six different categories, each named after a prominent rock in the respective group: Clovis, Wishbone, Peace, Watchtower, Backstay, and Independence. Their chemical compositions, as measured by APXS, are significantly different from each other.<ref>Squyres, S., et al. 2006 Rocks of the Columbia Hills. J. Geophys. Res. Planets. 111, doi:10.1029/2005JE002562</ref> Most importantly, all of the rocks in Columbia Hills show various degrees of alteration by aqueous fluids.<ref>Ming, D., et al. 2006 Geochemical and mineralogical indicators for aqueous processes in the Columbia Hills of Gusev crater, Mars. J. Geophys: Res.111, doi:10.1029/2005JE002560</ref> They are enriched in the elements phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, and bromine—all of which can be carried around in water solutions. The Columbia Hills’ rocks contain basaltic glass, along with varying amounts of olivine and sulfates.<ref>Schroder, C., et al. (2005) European Geosciences Union, General Assembly, Geophysical Research abstr., Vol. 7, 10254, 2005</ref><ref>Christensen, P.R. (2005) Mineral Composition and Abundance of the Rocks and Soils at Gusev and Meridiani from the Mars Exploration Rover Mini-TES Instruments AGU Joint Assembly, 23–27 May 2005 http://www.agu.org/meetings/sm05/waissm05.html Template:Webarchive</ref> The olivine abundance varies inversely with the amount of sulfates. This is exactly what is expected because water destroys olivine but helps to produce sulfates.

Acid fog is believed to have changed some of the Watchtower rocks. This was in a 200 meter long section of Cumberland Ridge and the Husband Hill summit. Certain places became less crystalline and more amorphous. Acidic water vapor from volcanoes dissolved some minerals forming a gel. When water evaporated a cement formed and produced small bumps. This type of process has been observed in the lab when basalt rocks are exposed to sulfuric and hydrochloric acids.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>COLE, Shoshanna B., et al. 2015. IN-SITU EVIDENCE FOR ALTERATION BY ACID FOG ON HUSBAND HILL, GUSEV CRATER, MARS. 2015 GSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, USA (1-4 November 2015) Paper No. 94-10</ref>

The Clovis group is especially interesting because the Mössbauer spectrometer (MB) detected goethite in it.<ref>Klingelhofer, G., et al. (2005) Lunar Planet. Sci. XXXVI abstr. 2349</ref> Goethite forms only in the presence of water, so its discovery is the first direct evidence of past water in the Columbia Hills's rocks. In addition, the MB spectra of rocks and outcrops displayed a strong decline in olivine presence,<ref>Schroder, C., et al. (2005) European Geosciences Union, General Assembly, Geophysical Research abstr., Vol. 7, 10254, 2005</ref> although the rocks probably once contained much olivine.<ref>Morris, S., et al. Mossbauer mineralogy of rock, soil, and dust at Gusev crater, Mars: SpiritTemplate:’s journal through weakly altered olivine basalt on the plains and pervasively altered basalt in the Columbia Hills. J. Geophys. Res.: 111</ref> Olivine is a marker for the lack of water because it easily decomposes in the presence of water. Sulfate was found, and it needs water to form.

Wishstone contained a great deal of plagioclase, some olivine, and anhydrite (a calcium sulfate). Peace rocks showed sulfur and strong evidence for bound water, so hydrated sulfates are suspected. Watchtower class rocks lack olivine, implying that they may have been altered by water. The Independence class showed some signs of clay (perhaps montmorillonite, a member of the smectite group). Clays require fairly long term exposure to water to form.

One type of soil, called Paso Robles, from the Columbia Hills, may be an evaporate deposit because it contains large amounts of sulfur, phosphorus, calcium, and iron.<ref>Ming, D., et al. 2006 Geochemical and mineralogical indicators for aqueous processes in the Columbia Hills of Gusev crater, Mars. J. Geophys. Res.111</ref> Also, MB found that much of the iron in Paso Robles soil was of the oxidized, Fe⁺⁺⁺ form, which would happen if water had been present.<ref>Bell, J (ed.) The Martian Surface. 2008. Cambridge University Press. Template:ISBN</ref>

Towards the middle of the six-year mission (a mission that was supposed to last only 90 days), large amounts of pure silica were found in the soil. The silica could have come from the interaction of soil with acid vapors produced by volcanic activity in the presence of water or from water in a hot spring environment.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After Spirit stopped working scientists studied old data from the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) and confirmed the presence of large amounts of carbonate-rich rocks, which means that regions of the planet may have once harbored water. The carbonates were discovered in an outcrop of rocks called "Comanche."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref> Richard V. Morris, Steven W. Ruff, Ralf Gellert, Douglas W. Ming, Raymond E. Arvidson, Benton C. Clark, D. C. Golden, Kirsten Siebach, Göstar Klingelhöfer, Christian Schröder, Iris Fleischer, Albert S. Yen, Steven W. Squyres. Identification of Carbonate-Rich Outcrops on Mars by the Spirit Rover. Science, June 3, 2010 {{#invoke:CS1 identifiers|main|_template=doi}}</ref>

See also

• Apollo 1 Hills
• Geography of Mars
• Composition of Mars
• Aeolis quadrangle

External links

• Google Mars infrared view of the Columbia Hills
• Official Mars Rovers site
• Everest panorama Template:Webarchive - anaglyph view from the top of Husband Hill. For a better view open this URL in QuickTime Player and then maximize the player. Red-blue glasses required.