¹George L. Carson,¹Lindsay J. McHenry,²Brian M. Hynek,¹Barry I. Cameron, ¹Chase T. Glenister
American Mineralogist 108, 409-429 Link to Article [http://www.minsocam.org/msa/ammin/toc/2023/Abstracts/AM108P0409.pdf]
¹Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 3209 N. Maryland Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211, U.S.A.
²Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, Colorado 80303, U.S.A
Copyright: The Mineralogical Society of America

Iceland’s Námafjall geothermal area exhibits a range of alteration environments. Geochemical and
mineralogical analyses of fumaroles and hot springs interacting with Holocene basaltic lavas at Hverir,
and with Pleistocene hyaloclastites atop nearby Námaskar∂, reveal different patterns of alteration
depending on the water/rock ratio, degree of oxidation, and substrate composition and age. The focus
of this study is a transect of a Hverir fumarole that has formed a bullseye pattern of alteration of a
Holocene basaltic lava flow. Surface samples and samples collected from shallow pits were analyzed
by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to
constrain changes in mineral assemblage and major elemental composition with both distance and
depth. Elemental sulfur is concentrated near the vent, with leached deposits with amorphous silica
and anatase nearby and kaolinite, hematite, and jarosite/alunite-group sulfate minerals farther out,
with smectites and less altered material at the margins, though smaller-scale mineralogical diversity
complicates this pattern.
Silica phases include amorphous silica (most samples), cristobalite (some samples in the leached
part of the apron), and quartz (minor constituent of a few samples). The silica was concentrated through
residual enrichment caused by leaching and is accompanied by a significant enrichment in TiO2 (in
anatase). The presence of abundant cristobalite in a surface fumarole-altered Holocene basaltic lava
flow most likely reflects cristobalite formed during the devitrification of volcanic glass or precipitation
from fumarolic vapors, rather than high-temperature processes. Minor, localized quartz likely reflects
diagenetic maturation of earlier-formed amorphous silica, under surface hydrothermal conditions.
Natroalunite, natrojarosite, and jarosite are all present and even exhibit compositional zonation within
individual crystals, showing that under surface hydrothermal conditions, these minerals can form a
significant solid solution.
The high iron content of the substrate basalt and the prevalence of Fe-sulfates and Fe-oxide spherules
among the alteration products makes this geothermal area an especially useful analog for potential
martian hydrothermal environments. The residual enrichment of silica in the leached deposits of the
Hverir fumarole apron could serve as an acid-sulfate leaching model in which amorphous silica forms
without appreciable sulfur-bearing phases in many samples, a possible analog for silica-rich soils in
the Columbia Hills on Mars. The coexistence of hematite spherules and jarosite-group minerals serves
as an intriguing analog for a volcanic/hydrothermal model for hematite and jarosite occurrences at
Meridiani Planum.

¹Tutolo,²Benjamin M.
Science Advances Open Access Link to Article [DOI10.1126/sciadv.add8472]
¹University of Calgary, Department of Geoscience, Calgary, AB, Canada
²University of Cambridge, Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge, United Kingdom

We currently do not have a copyright agreement with this publisher and cannot display the abstract here

¹Marco Morelli,^2,3Annarita Franza,¹Daniela Faggi,¹Giovanni Pratesi
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13974]
¹Parsec Foundation, Via di Galceti 74, 59100 Prato, Italy
²Department of Earth Sciences, University of Firenze, Via G. La Pira, 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy
³INAF-IAPS, Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

For the first time, this paper presents to the planetary scientists’ community the catalog of the meteorite collection preserved at the Italian Museum of Planetary Sciences (Museo Italiano di Scienze Planetarie, henceforth MISP) in Prato (Italy). Founded in 2005, MISP is a type specimen official repository approved by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. It represents one of the few museums worldwide entirely devoted to planetary sciences. The catalog of its meteorite collection encompasses 430 meteorites for a total of 1536 specimens, including 291 thin sections, 184 thick sections, and 278 specimens that MISP has classified. Furthermore, MISP is currently classifying 57 other meteorites. Some samples were found during meteorite recovery expeditions in hot deserts, promoted by MISP in collaboration with diverse Italian universities and national research institutions. MISP also keeps an impact rocks collection comprising 257 samples. In a country like Italy, where most of the collected meteorites are housed in museums whose catalogs are not available online, the publication of the MISP meteorite collection catalog, together with the catalog of the impact rocks collection, represents not only a significant scientific primary source but also a remarkable tool for disseminating meteoritics to nonresearch audiences in educational activities and citizen science projects.