Although the presence of sulfate minerals in martian outcrops may imply the prior existence of standing bodies of surface water, in terrestrial volcanic settings, sulfatic alteration may also occur above the water table within the vadose zone. On the summit of Kilauea volcano, sulfur dioxide, which is continuously emitted from Halemaumau crater and rapidly sequestered into sulfuric acid-rich aerosol entrained in the prevailing trade winds, is subsequently precipitated as acid-fog immediately downwind from the caldera in the Kau Desert. The characteristic pH of surface tephra deposits is <4.0 in Sand Wash, a region of continuous, acidic aerosol fall-out immediately SW of the caldera. The upper portion of the Keanakakoi Ash tephra in Sand Wash, deposited in the late 18th century, has a ubiquitous, 0.1-0.2 mm-thick coating of amorphous silica. Conversely, vertical walls of unconsolidated tephra, exposed within small, dry gullies eroded into the ca. 3-4 m-thick Keanakakoi section at Sand Wash, are coated with ca. 0.5-1.0 mm-thick, mixed amorphous silica and jarosite-bearing crusts. Since these crusts are denuded from their outcrops during ephemeral, but probably annual flooding events in Sand Wash, we believe that they must accumulate rapidly. These crusts are apparently formed via an evaporative mechanism whereby acidic pore fluids, circulating in the upper few m's within the highly porous tephra, are wicked towards the walls of the gullies. Geochemical modeling of the crust-forming process implies that the sulfate formation via evaporation occurs subsequent to minimal interaction of acidic pore fluids with the basaltic tephra. This also suggests that the cycle from acid-fog fall-out to precipitation of the siliceous-sulfatic crusts must occur quite rapidly. Production of siliceous-sulfatic crusts via acid-fog alteration may also be occurring on Mars. The occurrence of evaporitic sulfate and silica at Sand Wash in Kilauea may serve as an example of how the jarosite-bearing outcrop at Meridiani may have formed.

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