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Well-Preserved Ooids Prove Past Life on Mars.
Thursday, January 28, 2016 8:46
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Figure 1: NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity acquired the above microscopic image on Jan. 19, 2016 (Mission Sol 1228) at Namib Dune in Bagnold Dune area, Gale Crater, Mars. Seventeen red arrows point to well-preserved ooids. They are all smaller than 2 mm across.
Highest resolution: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fossil_lin/24115524819/sizes/o/
Highest resolution: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fossil_lin/24115524819/sizes/o/
Earthly ooids that resemble Martian ooids:
http://wretchfossil.blogspot.tw/2016/01/earthly-ooids-for-comparison.html
http://wretchfossil.blogspot.tw/2016/01/earthly-ooids-for-comparison.html
Figure 2:
NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity acquired the above microscopic image on Jan. 19, 2016 (Mission Sol 1228) at Namib Dune in Bagnold Dune area, Gale Crater, Mars. Twelve red arrows point to well-preserved ooids. These ooids are smaller than 150 micrometers in diameter, as they have passed through a 150-micron sieve. The rover dumped them here after testing similar particles for their chemical molecules in its laboratory instrument (SAM). Highest resolution is at
www.flickr.com/photos/fossil_lin/24488655926/sizes/o/ , which has been enlarged 200% from its source image at
www.flickr.com/photos/fossil_lin/24488655926/sizes/o/ , which has been enlarged 200% from its source image at
More information on Martian ooids:
Ooids contain biologically produced aragonite:
2. “Aragonite forms naturally in almost all mollusk shells, and as the calcareous endoskeleton of warm- and cold-water corals (Scleractinia). Several serpulids have aragonitic tubes. Because the mineral deposition in mollusk shells is strongly biologically controlled, some crystal forms are distinctively different from those of inorganic aragonite.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragonite#Occurrence )
3. “The second most common type of sand is calcium carbonate, for example aragonite, which has mostly been created, over the past half billion years, by various forms of life, like coral and shellfish.” (quoted from the second paragraph in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand ).
More Reasons for Identifying the Ooids:
1. Martian sands at Bagnold Dune are well-rounded, well-sorted (nearly uniform in size, about 0.5 mm in diameter, as reported in
http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/mars/well-sorted-martian-sand.html
Such features are seen in every Focus Merge Data Product athttp://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=1231&camera=MAHLIand http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=1228&camera=MAHLI
Such shape, size and concentration are characteristic of ooid sand.
Such features are seen in every Focus Merge Data Product athttp://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=1231&camera=MAHLIand http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=1228&camera=MAHLI
Such shape, size and concentration are characteristic of ooid sand.
2. The Martian ooid sand is seen not only at High Dune (see
http://wretchfossil.blogspot.tw/2015/12/martian-ooids-found-on-sanddune.html ), but also at Namib Dune (see figures at top). Both High Dune and Namib Dune are portions of Bagnold Dune, which lies at the foot of Mount Sharp. Its environment is like a large water body contacting a mountain. Such distribution and environment match those of ooid sand on Earth.
Numerous Ooids in a Single Photo:
NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity acquired the above image with Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Jan. 23, 2016 (Sol 1231) at Namib Dune in Bagnold Dune area, Gale Crater, Mars. The majority of particles in this image are ooid sand, although most of them have been severely eroded. Red lines mark some of the less eroded, well-rounded ooids. They are all smaller than 2 mm across. Highest resolution:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fossil_lin/24517296021/sizes/o/ , which is 200% of source image:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fossil_lin/24517296021/sizes/o/ , which is 200% of source image:
NASA’s raw image: mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=1231MH00016300004…
Microbes Form Freshwater Ooids:
“Here, we show that photosynthetic microbes not only enhance early carbonate precipitation around the ooid nucleus but also control the formation of the entire cortex in freshwater ooids from Lake Geneva, Switzerland. “ Quoted from the abstract of this article: “Going nano: A new step toward understanding the processes governing freshwater ooid formation”, displayed at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/40/6/547.abstract .
The above finding was recently confirmed by this article.
The above finding was recently confirmed by this article.
The water in Gale Crater of Mars was freshwater as reported in this news story.
New article confirms microbes form ooids:
See abstract at https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2015AM/webprogram/Paper270154.html.
Article title: MOLECULAR EVIDENCE FOR A MICROBIAL ROLE IN OOID FORMATION AND PRESERVATION OF MOLECULAR BIOSIGNATURES IN ANCIENT OOLITE
