Phosphate minerals: a window into terrestrial planetary formation history

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The major goal of this research program is to improve our understanding of the formation of our closest planet Mars. Mars is one of the rocky planets which began to form at the same time as the Earth. The composition of the rocks which form its surface appear to be largely volcanic (basaltic) similar to what the early Earth would have been like. It has obviously had a volcanic history as we can see from Olympus Mons, a 26 kilometre high volcano on its surface. Just as with terrestrial rocks, Martian rocks are not all the same. Each rock, and each mineral that makes up the rock show a wide variety of textures and compositions all of which tell us something about the geology of the red planet. Currently, the only way to "explore" Mars is with data sent back from unmanned orbiting spacecraft and rovers, and through the study of Martian meteorites. Martian meteorites are rocks that have been launched from the planet and landed on Earth many that are housed at the Royal Ontario Museum that I have direct access to for this project.