Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-25-2022
Publication Title
Science Advances
Volume
8
Issue
34
First page number:
1
Last page number:
16
Abstract
Before Perseverance, Jezero crater’s floor was variably hypothesized to have a lacustrine, lava, volcanic airfall, or aeolian origin. SuperCam observations in the first 286 Mars days on Mars revealed a volcanic and intrusive terrain with compositional and density stratification. The dominant lithology along the traverse is basaltic, with plagioclase enrichment in stratigraphically higher locations. Stratigraphically lower, layered rocks are richer in normative pyroxene. The lowest observed unit has the highest inferred density and is olivine-rich with coarse (1.5 millimeters) euhedral, relatively unweathered grains, suggesting a cumulate origin. This is the first martian cumulate and shows similarities to martian meteorites, which also express olivine disequilibrium. Alteration materials including carbonates, sulfates, perchlorates, hydrated silicates, and iron oxides are pervasive but low in abundance, suggesting relatively brief lacustrine conditions. Orbital observations link the Jezero floor lithology to the broader Nili-Syrtis region, suggesting that density-driven compositional stratification is a regional characteristic.
Controlled Subject
Mars (Planet); Martian craters; Martian meteorites
Disciplines
Geology
File Format
File Size
1988 KB
Language
English
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Repository Citation
Wiens, R. C.,
Udry, A.,
Beyssac, O.,
Quantin-Nataf, C.,
Mangold, N.,
80+ authors contributed to this work
(2022).
Compositionally and Density Stratified Igneous Terrain in Jezero Crater, Mars.
Science Advances, 8(34),
1-16.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo3399
