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Quantifying Lithochemical Diversity Of Martian Materials Using Hierarchical Clustering And A Similarity Index For Classification, Michael Conner Bouchard

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We are currently living in the golden age of robotic exploration of Mars, with a continued robotic presence there since 1997. Next to Earth, Mars is the planet about which we have gathered the most geologic information. Unlike Earth, Mars does not appear to have plate tectonics, and the planet’s primary and secondary crust is dominated by basalts. Understanding the compositional diversity of the materials that make up the martian crust will give us a better insight into the geologic processes that formed the planet and its subsequent evolution. One large and growing source of martian surface compositions is the …