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paulanderson wrote: more sulfate deposits? Ice?
This material are not found in the terrain in a way suggesting its ice, secondly this location are only at 30,9 degrees north so very unlikely its ice.
As for sulphate containing minerals, yes this could be something like whats been found in Meridiani.
But again, did Mars have a global set of conditions such as the proposed idea it was strongly acidic in the later part of the wet epoc with corresponding mineral formation.
And if that's so we have one explanation why carbonates are so rare, at least near the surface, older geological strata could of course be quite diferent.
Then on the other hand did Mars have areas where the chemistry and minerals formation were different like on Earth?
Well the instruments on the orbiters might give one answer, there are a few spots where the brighter material are more common and none I can see where it is continous in any widerspread area.
But if they took one measurement to the the side of this location, and then one smack on the brigher material. Then I guess it might be possible to weed out the data from 'ordinary' surface material and minerals and get a peek of what the composition might be.