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Sedimentary rocks at Yellowknife Bay (Gale crater) on Mars include mudstone sampled by the Curiosity rover. The samples, John Klein and Cumberland, contain detrital basaltic minerals, calcium sulfates, iron oxide or hydroxides, iron sulfides, amorphous material, and trioctahedral smectites. The John Klein smectite has basal spacing of ~10 angstroms, indicating little interlayer hydration. The Cumberland smectite has basal spacing at both ~13.2 and ~10 angstroms. The larger spacing suggests a partially chloritized interlayer or interlayer magnesium or calcium facilitating H2O retention. Basaltic minerals in the mudstone are similar to those in nearby eolian deposits. However, the mudstone has far less Fe-forsterite, possibly lost with formation of smectite plus magnetite. Late Noachian/Early Hesperian or younger age indicates that clay mineral formation on Mars extended beyond Noachian time.

Electron diffraction studies of vapor-deposited water ice have characterized the dynamical structural changes during crystallization that affect volatile retention in cometary materials. Crystallization is found to occur by nucleation of small domains, while leaving a significant part of the amorphous material in a slightly more relaxed amorphous state that coexists metastably with cubic crystalline ice. The onset of the amorphous relaxation is prior to crystallization and coincides with the glass transition. Above the glass transition temperature, the crystallization kinetics are consistent with the amorphous solid becoming a "strong" viscous liquid. The amorphous component can effectively retain volatiles during crystallization if the volatile concentration is approximately 10% or less. For higher initial impurity concentrations, a significant amount of impurities is released during crystallization, probably because the impurities are trapped on the surfaces of micropores. A model for crystallization over long timescales is described that can be applied to a wide range of impure water ices under typical astrophysical conditions if the fragility factor D, which describes the viscosity behavior, can be estimated.

Selected area electron diffraction is used to monitor structural changes of vapor-deposited water ice in vacuum during warm-up from 15 to 188 K. A progression of three amorphous forms of water ice is found with well-defined transitions. The formation of a high-density amorphous form (Iah) at 15 K is confirmed, and the transition to the more familiar low-density form (Ial) occurs gradually over the range 38 to 68 K. At 131 K, the ice transforms into a third amorphous form (Iar), which precedes the crystallization of cubic ice (Ic) and coexists metastably with Ic from 148 K until at least 188 K. These structural transformations of amorphous water ice can be used to explain hitherto anomalous properties of astrophysical ices. The structural transition from Iah to Ial is responsible for the diffusion and recombination of radicals in ultraviolet-photolyzed interstellar ices at low temperatures. The occurrence and persistence of Iar explains anomalous gas retention and gas release from water-rich ices at temperatures above 150 K.

Microscopic diamond was recently discovered in oxidized acid residues from several carbonaceous chondrite meteorites (for example, the C delta component of the Allende meteorite). Some of the reported properties of C delta seem in conflict with those expected of diamond. Here we present high spatial resolution analytical data which may help to explain such results. The C delta diamond is an extremely fine-grained (0.5-10 nm) single-phase material, but surface and interfacial carbon atoms, which may comprise as much as 25% of the total, impart an 'amorphous' character to some spectral data. These data support the proposed high-pressure conversion of amorphous carbon and graphite into diamonds due to grain-grain collisions in the interstellar medium although a low-pressure mechanism of formation cannot be ruled out.