Global mineralogical mapping of Mars by the Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité (OMEGA) instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft provides new information on Mars' geological and climatic history. Phyllosilicates formed by aqueous alteration very early in the planet's history (the “phyllocian” era) are found in the oldest terrains; sulfates were formed in a second era (the “theiikian” era) in an acidic environment. Beginning about 3.5 billion years ago, the last era (the “siderikian”) is dominated by the formation of anhydrous ferric oxides in a slow superficial weathering, without liquid water playing a major role across the planet.

The large-area coverage at a resolution of 10-20 metres per pixel in colour and three dimensions with the High Resolution Stereo Camera Experiment on the European Space Agency Mars Express Mission has made it possible to study the time-stratigraphic relationships of volcanic and glacial structures in unprecedented detail and give insight into the geological evolution of Mars. Here we show that calderas on five major volcanoes on Mars have undergone repeated activation and resurfacing during the last 20 per cent of martian history, with phases of activity as young as two million years, suggesting that the volcanoes are potentially still active today. Glacial deposits at the base of the Olympus Mons escarpment show evidence for repeated phases of activity as recently as about four million years ago. Morphological evidence is found that snow and ice deposition on the Olympus construct at elevations of more than 7,000 metres led to episodes of glacial activity at this height. Even now, water ice protected by an insulating layer of dust may be present at high altitudes on Olympus Mons.

spacecraft landed successfully on Mars and imaged the surface to characterize the surficial geology. Here we report on the geology and subsurface structure of the landing site to aid in situ geophysical investigations. InSight landed in a degraded impact crater in Elysium Planitia on a smooth sandy, granule-and pebble-rich surface with few rocks. Superposed impact craters are common and eolian bedforms are sparse. During landing, pulsed retrorockets modified the surface to reveal a near surface stratigraphy of surficial dust, over thin unconsolidated sand, underlain by a variable thickness duricrust, with poorly sorted, unconsolidated sand with rocks beneath. Impact, eolian, and mass wasting processes have dominantly modified the surface. Surface observations are consistent with expectations made from remote sensing data prior to landing indicating a surface composed of an impactfragmented regolith overlying basaltic lava flows.

[1] We present synthetic catalogs of Mars quakes, intended to be used for performance assessments of future seismic networks on the planet. We have compiled a new inventory of compressional and extensional tectonic faults for the planet Mars, comprising 8500 faults with a total length of 680,000 km. The faults were mapped on the basis of Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter (MOLA) shaded relief. Hence we expect to have assembled a homogeneous data set, not biased by illumination and viewing conditions of image data. Updated models of Martian crater statistics and geological maps were used to assign new maximum ages to all faults. On the basis of the fault catalog, spatial distributions of seismicity were simulated, using assumptions on the available annual seismic moment budget, the moment-frequency relationship, and a relation between rupture length and released moment. We have constructed five different models of Martian seismicity, predicting an annual moment release between 3.42 Â 10 16 Nm and 4.78 Â 10 18 Nm and up to 572 events with magnitudes greater than 4 per year as upper limit end-member case. Most events are expected on the Tharsis shield, but minor seismic centers are expected south of Hellas and north of Utopia Planitia.Citation: Knapmeyer, M., J. Oberst, E. Hauber, M. Wählisch, C. Deuchler, and R. Wagner (2006), Working models for spatial distribution and level of Mars' seismicity,

The second ExoMars mission will be launched in 2020 to target an ancient location interpreted to have strong potential for past habitability and for preserving physical and chemical biosignatures (as well as abiotic/prebiotic organics). The mission will deliver a lander with instruments for atmospheric and geophysical investigations and a rover tasked with searching for signs of extinct life. The ExoMars rover will be equipped with a drill to collect material from outcrops and at depth down to 2 m. This subsurface sampling capability will provide the best chance yet to gain access to chemical biosignatures. Using the powerful Pasteur payload instruments, the ExoMars science team will conduct a holistic search for traces of life and seek corroborating geological context information. Key Words: Biosignatures—ExoMars—Landing sites—Mars rover—Search for life. Astrobiology 17, 471–510.