Ancient zircon minerals from Mars reveal the elusive internal structure of the red planet
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Nov 18, 2020
The uranium-bearing mineral zircon is an abundant constituent of Earth's continental crust, providing information about the age and origin of the continents and large geological features such as mountain chains and giant volcanoes. But unlike Earth, Mars's crust is not evolved and is compositionally similar to the crust found under the Earth's oceans, where zircon is rare. Therefore, zircon is n