The compositions of rocks and soils on Mars shown here have been superseded by the results presented in: Rieder, R., et al., 1997, The chemical composition of the Martian soil and rocks returned by the mobile Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer: Preliminary results from the X-ray mode, Science, 278: 1771-1774.
Mars |
Earth | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A-3, Rock "Barnacle Bill" |
A-5, Soil | SNCs (Mars Meteorites) |
Continental Crust | Oceanic Crust | ||
Average | Sediments | |||||
weight % | weight % | weight % | weight % | weight % | weight % | |
MgO | 3.1 | 8.6 | 9.3 - 31.6 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 7.7 |
Al2O3 | 12.4 | 10.1 | 0.7 - 12.0 | 15.2 | 13.0 | 15.6 |
SiO2 | 55.0 | 43.8 | 38.2 - 52.7 | 60.2 | 50.0 | 50.7 |
K2O* | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.022 - 0.19 | 2.9 | 2.0 | 0.17 |
CaO | 4.6 | 5.3 | 0.6 - 15.8 | 5.5 | 8.4 | 11.4 |
TiO2 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.1 - 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.5 |
MnO* | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.44 - 0.55 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.16 |
FeO | 12.7 | 17.5 | 17.6 - 27.1 | 6.05 | 5.5 | 9.9 |
FeO/MnO | 14.1 | 29.2 | 37.0 - 51.5 | - | - | - |
*Values for potassium (K) and manganese (Mn) are probably too high and subject to revision after further analysis.
Return to Mineralogy and Geochemistry Page