Remote Determination of Martian Chloride Salt Abundances

Abstract Chloride salt‐bearing deposits are widely distributed across the southern highlands of Mars. Because chloride salts are highly water‐soluble, these deposits may be representative of the last significant period of stable liquid water at the Martian surface. Therefore, these deposits are key to understanding the fate and evolution of surface waters on Mars. However, little consensus exists about the formation conditions of these deposits, and their origins remain enigmatic. This is due in part because remote spectroscopic detection and quantification of many anhydrous chlorides is hampered by a lack of easily discernible diagnostic absorption features. To address this issue, we present a novel Hapke radiative transfer model‐based method to estimate hydration states and salt abundances of Martian chloride salt‐bearing deposits using visible/near‐infrared (VNIR) reflectance spectra. VNIR laboratory spectra are used to derive water abundances of analog chloride‐bearing materials, establishing an experimental basis for application of these methods to Mars. These methods are then applied to orbital Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars data to create maps of the hydration state and modeled salt abundance of chloride‐bearing deposits. When overlain onto high resolution 3D digital terrain models, these methods produce the highest resolution site‐specific salt abundance maps currently available, enhancing our understanding of chloride deposit geologic context. As an example, deposits in the Terra Sirenum region are observed to have higher estimated salt abundances than previously recognized, exhibiting spatial variations in both abundance and surface morphology.