posted June 19, 2007 Oxidants from Pulverized Minerals---
Laboratory measurements of hydrogen peroxide produced from
crushed basaltic minerals immersed in water have important
implications for Martian and lunar dust. Written by Linda M. V.
Martel Joel Hurowitz (previously at State University of New York
at Stony Brook and now at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Nick
Tosca, Scott McLennan, and Martin Schoonen (SUNY at Stony Brook)
studied the production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) from freshly
pulverized minerals in solution. Their experiments focused on
olivine, augite, and labradorite; silicate minerals of basaltic
planetary surfaces, such as the Moon and Mars, that are exposed
to the intense crushing and grinding of impact cratering
processes. The H2O2 produced in the experiments was enough to
adequately explain the oxidizing nature of Martian regolith
first determined by the Viking Landers and the results suggest,
for the first time, that mechanically activated mineral surfaces
may be an important part of t