Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Zastrow, Allison M.
• Glotch, Timothy D.

Titel

Distinct Carbonate Lithologies in Jezero Crater, Mars

Ist Teil von

• Geophysical research letters, 2021-05, Vol.48 (9), p.e2020GL092365-n/a

Ort / Verlag

United States: John Wiley and Sons Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Wiley Online Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Jezero crater is the landing site for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The Noachian‐aged crater has undergone several periods of fluvial and lacustrine activity and phyllosilicate‐ and carbonate‐bearing rocks were formed and emplaced as a result. It also contains a portion of the regional Nili Fossae olivine‐carbonate unit. In this work, we performed spectral mixture analysis of visible/near‐infrared hyperspectral imagery over Jezero. We modeled carbonate abundances up to ∼35% and identified three distinct units containing different carbonate phases. Our work also shows that the olivine in Jezero is predominantly restricted to aeolian deposits overlying the carbonate rocks. The diversity of carbonate phases in Jezero points to multiple periods of carbonate formation under varying conditions. Plain Language Summary Jezero crater is the landing site for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The site was selected due to the identification of many minerals that formed in lakes and rivers throughout the crater's history and that may have kept a record of potential biological life. Previous studies have identified a variety of these kinds of minerals, such as phyllosilicates and carbonates, but have not determined how much of each kind of mineral is present in Jezero at this scale. In this work, we performed an analysis to model the abundance of these minerals in three orbital images, focusing in particular on the abundances of three different carbonates with different compositions. The diversity of carbonates in Jezero points to multiple periods of carbonate formation under varying conditions. Key Points Unmixing of near‐infrared spectra in Jezero crater suggests carbonate abundances up to ∼35% per pixel Strong olivine spectral signatures are correlated to sand deposits overlying light‐toned carbonate‐bearing rocks Fe‐carbonate is the dominant phase throughout the study area; Mg‐carbonate is present along the Jezero paleolake rim