Concretions at the Mars Desert Research Station

Large concretions found on "Mars." The largest found thus far has a diameter of ~27mm!

Brachiopods from the Cretaceous period found on EVA.

On 14.03.2005, we took an "out of SIM" EVA to scout out the concretion site that Stacy and myself had haphazardly found while looking for the Moqui Marbles that Melissa Battler had previously found two years prior to our rotation. We took the whole crew to the site, which is roughly 1.25 km from the MDRS, which has a massive rock that contains concretions in it. I decided to name this rock "Comet Tail Rock" due to the immense amount of comet tail features associated with the concretions found there.

More samples were collected and when time permits, I will record their size distribution and frequency. Also, while scouting out the area further, we came across larger concretions with a much higher content of iron due to erosional processes. We were so amazed at the immense size of the concretions which were fairly close to "Comet Tail Rock". We collected samples of these beautiful and quite curious concretions and wondered why their size was so immense compared to others previously observed. Amber Church and I discussed this in great detail while trying to hurry back to the Hab with the rest of the crew as the sun had already fallen in the western sky and the wind (which is the most predominant geological process on Mars) started to pick up. On a side note...Mars has some spectacular sunsets, which remind me of the Painted Deserts of the Southwest. I felt like I was home, not on Mars. But, finally, we arrived at the Hab and continued our discussions about the "Mother of ALL Concretions" that was found. We put it up on the MDRS Webcam for all to appreciate.

As for the theories that Amber and myself came up was that there was an immense amount of water and microbial life concentrated more so in certain parts of a general locale than others. We will be doing more research on this for sure in the future. But, I think I prefer Amber's Father's theory (Ian Church, 2005) which states: "The reason why there are very few large concretions is because previous Martians discovered them and collected them all and left behind the smaller ones. It is the good ol' selection of the fittest OR theft of the best natural treasures which all national park types know".

The largest diameter that has been measured thus far is ~27mm in diameter. I still need to take more measurements and hope to produce a size distribution and frequency chart of the finds by the end of my rotation.

Once again...We wish all on the "Good Earth" greetings and salutations. We wish you peace and happiness and we will be home soon.