¹J.V.Clark,²P.D.Archer,³J.E.Gruener,³D.W.Ming,²V.M.Tu,³P.B.Niles,⁴S.A.Mertzman
Icarus (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2020.113936]
¹GeoControls Systems, Inc – Jacobs JETS Contract at NASA Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Pkwy, Houston, TX 77058, USA
²Jacobs JETS Contract at NASA Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Pkwy, Houston, TX 77058, USA
³NASA Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Pkwy, Houston, TX 77058, USA
⁴Department of Earth and Environmental, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604, USA
Copyright Elsevier

The Johnson Space Center-Rocknest (JSC-RN) simulant was developed in response to a need by NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) project for a simulant to be used in component and system testing for water extraction from Mars regolith. JSC-RN was designed to be chemically and mineralogically similar to material from the aeolian sand shadow named Rocknest in Gale Crater, particularly the 1–3 wt% low temperature (<450 °C) water release as measured by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on the Curiosity rover. Sodium perchlorate, goethite, pyrite, ferric sulfate, regular and high capacity granular ferric oxide, and forsterite were added to a Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) base in order to match the mineralogy, evolved gases, and elemental chemistry of Rocknest. Mineral and rock components were sent to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Denver for mixing. Approximately 800 kg of JSC-RN was sent back to NASA in 5 gal buckets, which were subsampled and characterized. All samples of the USGS-produced simulants had similar evolved gas profiles as a small prototype batch of JSC-RN made in JSC laboratories, with the exception of HCl, and were similar in terms of mineralogy and total chemistry. Also, all JSC-RN subsamples were homogenous and had similar mineralogy, total chemistry, and low-temperature evolved gas profiles as the Rocknest aeolian sand shadow examined with Curiosity‘s instrument suite on Mars. In particular, the low temperature water releases were similar and the amount of water evolved from JSC-RN at <450 °C was similar to the water content of Rocknest based on SAM water peak integrations. Overall, JSC-RN is ideally suited for ISRU studies of water extraction of global martian soil due to its excellent agreement with measured properties of martian soils and its proven feasibility for large-scale production.

¹Adrian Brearley
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13537]
¹Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131 USA
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

Transmission electron microscope studies of fine‐grained rims in three CM2 carbonaceous chondrites, Y‐791198, Murchison, and ALH 81002, have revealed the presence of widespread nanoparticles with a distinctive core–shell structure, invariably associated with carbonaceous material. These nanoparticles vary in size from ~20 nm up to 50 nm in diameter and consist of a core of Fe,Ni carbide surrounded by a continuous layer of polycrystalline magnetite. These magnetite shells are 5–7 nm in thickness irrespective of the diameter of the core Fe,Ni carbide grains. A narrow layer of amorphous carbon a few nanometers in thickness is present separating the carbide core from the magnetite shell in all the nanoparticles observed. The Fe,Ni carbide phases that constitute the core are consistent with both haxonite and cohenite, based on electron diffraction data, energy dispersive X‐ray analysis, and electron energy loss spectroscopy. Z‐contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy shows that these core–shell magnetite‐carbide nanoparticles can occur as individual isolated grains, but more commonly occur in clusters of multiple particles. In addition, energy‐filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) images show that in all cases, the nanoparticles are embedded within regions of carbonaceous material or are coated with carbonaceous material. The observed nanostructures of the carbides and their association with carbonaceous material can be interpreted as being indicative of Fischer–Tropsch‐type (FTT) reactions catalyzed by nanophase Fe,Ni metal grains that were carburized during the catalysis reaction. The most likely environment for these FTT reactions appears to be the solar nebula consistent with the high thermal stability of haxonite and cohenite, compared with other carbides and the evidence of localized catalytic graphitization of the carbonaceous material. However, the possibility that such reactions occurred within the CM parent body cannot be excluded, although this scenario seems unlikely, because the kinetics of the reaction would be extremely slow at the temperatures inferred for CM asteroidal parent bodies. In addition, carbides are unlikely to be stable under the oxidizing conditions of alteration experienced by CM chondrites. Instead, it is most probable that the magnetite rims on all the carbide particles are the product of parent body oxidation of Fe,Ni carbides, but this oxidation was incomplete, because of the buildup of an impermeable layer of amorphous carbon at the interface between the magnetite and the carbide phase that arrested the reaction before it went to completion. These observations suggest that although FTT catalysis reactions may not have been the major mechanism of organic material formation within the solar nebula, they nevertheless contributed to the inventory of complex insoluble organic matter that is present in carbonaceous chondrites.

¹Guseynov, M.M.,²Taskaev, S.V.,¹Kamilov, I.K.
Crystallography Reports 65, 333-337 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1134/S1063774520030116]
¹Amirkhanov Institute of Physics, Dagestan Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Makhachkala, 367015, Russian Federation
²Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk, 454001, Russian Federation

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¹Ustinova, G.K.,¹Alexeev, V.A.
Geochemistry International 58, 487-499 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1134/S0016702920050110]
¹Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry (GEOKhI), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation

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¹Bellucci, J.J.,²Herd, C.D.K.,¹Whitehouse, M.J.,^1,3Nemchin, A.A.,¹Kenny, G.G.,¹Merle, R.E.
Chemical Geology 545, 119638 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.119638]
¹Department of Geosciences, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, SE-104 05, Sweden
²Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada
³School of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS), Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia

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¹Porfido, C.,²Manzari, P.,¹Allegretta, I.,¹Terzano, R.,³De Pascale, O.,³Senesi, G.S.
Talanta 217, 121114 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121114]
¹Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta e degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro”, Via Amendola 165/A, Bari, 70126, Italy
²Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, via del Politecnico, Roma, 00133, Italy
³CNR – Istituto per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Plasmi (ISTP) – Sede di Bari, Via Amendola 122/D, Bari, 70126, Italy

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^1,2Nemeth, P.
IUcrJ 7, 368-369 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1107/S2052252520005254]
¹Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Magyar tudósok körútja 2, Budapest, 1117, Hungary
²Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pannonia, Egyetem út 10, Veszprém, 8200, Hungary

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¹Maksimova, A.A.,¹Petrova, E.V.,¹Chukin, A.V.,¹Oshtrakh, M.I.
Journal of Molecular Structure 1216, 128391 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1016/j.molstruc.2020.128391]
¹Institute of Physics and Technology, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, 620002, Russian Federation

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¹Ray, D.,²Misra, S.,³Upadhyay, D.,⁴Newsom, H.E.,⁴Peterson, E.J.,⁵Dube, A.,⁶Satyanaryanan, M.
Journal of Earth Science 129, 118 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1007/s12040-020-1371-7]
¹Planetary Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, 380 009, India
²Discipline of Geological Sciences, SAEES, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 4000, South Africa
³Department of Geology and Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721 302, India
⁴Institute of Meteoritics and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, United States
⁵8A-264, Salt Lake, Kolkata, 700 091, India
fCSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, 500 007, India

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^1,2Ai-Cheng Zhang,¹Run-Lian Pang,³Naoya Sakamoto,^3,4,5Hisayoshi Yurimoto
American Mineralogist 105, 1021–1029 Link to Article [http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/AmMin/TOC/2020/index.html?issue_number=07]
¹State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China ²CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, China
³3Isotope Imaging Laboratory, Creative Research Institution, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan
⁴Department of Natural History Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan
⁵Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan
Copyright: The Mineralogical Society of America

“Cr-Zr-Ca armalcolite” is a mineral originally found in Apollo samples five decades ago. However, no structural information has been obtained for this mineral. In this study, we report a new occurrence of “Cr-Zr-Ca armalcolite” and its associated mineral assemblage in an Mg-suite lithic clast (Clast-20) from the brecciated lunar meteorite Northwest Africa 8182. In this lithic clast, plagioclase (An = 88–91), pyroxene (Mg#[Mg/(Mg+Fe)] = 0.87–0.91) and olivine (Mg# = 0.86–0.87) are the major rock-forming minerals. Armalcolite and “Cr-Zr-Ca armalcolite” are observed with other minor phases including ilmenite, chromite, rutile, fluorapatite, merrillite, monazite, FeNi metal, and Fe-sulfide. Based on 38 oxygen atoms, the chemical formula of “Cr-Zr-Ca armalcolite” is (Ca0.99Na0.01)S1.00(Ti14.22Fe2.06Cr2.01 Mg1.20Zr0.54Al0.49Ca0.21Y0.05Mn0.04Ce0.03Si0.03La0.01Nd0.01Dy0.01)S20.91O38. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) results reveal that the “Cr-Zr-Ca armalcolite” has a loveringite R3 structure, differing from the armalcolite Bbmm structure. The estimated hexagonal cell parameters a and c of “Cr-Zr-Ca ar- malcolite” are 10.55 and 20.85 Å, respectively. These structural and compositional features indicate that “Cr-Zr-Ca armalcolite” is loveringite, not belonging to the armalcolite family. Comparison with “Cr-Zr-Ca armalcolite” and loveringite of other occurrences implies that loveringite might be an important carrier of rare earth elements in lunar Mg-suite rocks. The compositional features of pla- gioclase and mafic silicate minerals in Clast-20 differ from those in other Mg-suite lithic clasts from Apollo samples and lunar meteorites, indicating that Clast-20 represents a new example of diverse lunar Mg-suite lithic clasts.