However, it is uncertain how accurate these methods are. Noncrystalline materials are studied using the following methods: (1) noncrystalline X-ray diffraction peaks modeled with broad peaks, (2) noncrystalline peaks modeled with diffraction patterns of measured noncrystalline materials, and (3) a mass balance calculation that combines chemical and X-ray diffraction data. X-ray diffraction techniques are frequently used to quantify the abundance and composition of crystalline materials, and relatively recent developments in X-ray diffraction data analysis methods allow noncrystalline materials to also be characterized. Natural soil and sediment samples on Earth and Mars are commonly mixtures of crystalline and noncrystalline materials. This study highlights the usefulness of the mass balance calculation method for characterizing amorphous materials in terrestrial samples, providing important supplemental information to destructive and time consuming size separation and dissolution procedures. This suggests that previous amorphous component estimates for Martian samples are relatively accurate. CheMin analog measurements perform well in our tests, with amorphous abundances and compositions comparable to laboratory quantitative XRD measurements, though slightly underestimated. For a single sample, amorphous abundance estimates and amorphous compositions are relatively similar across all estimation methods. Our methods resulted in nine amorphous abundances and four amorphous compositions for each sample. We used three natural samples known to contain amorphous materials: glacial sediment, Hawaiian soil, and a paleosol.
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Additionally, we tested for instrumentation effects by measuring our samples on a laboratory XRD instrument (PANalytical X'Pert Pro) and the CheMin test bed instrument (CheMin IV). We tested these methods against a quantitative XRD (internal standard) method commonly used in terrestrial laboratories. Three methods are used to estimate the bulk amorphous component abundance and composition of Martian samples using XRD and bulk chemical data: (1) Rietveld refinements, (2) FULLPAT analyses, and (3) mass balance calculations. The origin(s) of these materials are poorly understood, and there are significant uncertainties on their estimated abundances and compositions.
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X-ray amorphous materials have been detected in all samples measured by the CheMin X-ray diffractometer (XRD) on board the Mars Science Laboratory rover in Gale Crater, Mars.