Compositionally and density stratified igneous terrain in Jezero crater, Mars

Journal Article · Thu Aug 25 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Science Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo3399· OSTI ID:2470465

Wiens, Roger C. ^[1]; Udry, Arya ^[2]; Beyssac, Olivier ^[3]; Quantin-Nataf, Cathy ^[4]; Mangold, Nicolas ^[5]; Cousin, Agnès ^[6]; Mandon, Lucia ^[7]; Bosak, Tanja ^[8]; Forni, Olivier ^[6]; McLennan, Scott M. ^[9]; Sautter, Violaine ^[3]; Brown, Adrian ^[10]; Benzerara, Karim ^[3]; Johnson, Jeffrey R. ^[11]; Mayhew, Lisa ^[12]; Maurice, Sylvestre ^[6]; Anderson, Ryan B. ^[13]; Clegg, Samuel M. ^[14]; Crumpler, Larry ^[15]; Gabriel, Travis J. ^[13] ; Gasda, Patrick ^[14]; Hall, James ^[8]; Horgan, Briony N. ^[16]; Kah, Linda ^[17]; Legett, Carey ^[14]; Madariaga, Juan Manuel ^[18]; Meslin, Pierre-Yves ^[6]; Ollila, Ann M. ^[14]; Poulet, Francois ^[19]; Royer, Clement ^[7]; Sharma, Shiv K. ^[20]; Siljeström, Sandra ^[21]; Simon, Justin I. ^[22]; Acosta-Maeda, Tayro E. ^[20]; Alvarez-Llamas, Cesar ^[23]; Angel, S. Michael ^[24]; Arana, Gorka ^[18]; Beck, Pierre ^[25]; Bernard, Sylvain ^[3]; Bertrand, Tanguy ^[7]; Bousquet, Bruno ^[26]; Castro, Kepa ^[18]; Chide, Baptiste ^[14]; Clavé, Elise ^[26]; Cloutis, Ed ^[27]; Connell, Stephanie ^[27]; Dehouck, Erwin ^[4]; Dromart, Gilles ^[4]; Fischer, Woodward ^[28]; Fouchet, Thierry ^[7]; Francis, Raymond ^[29]; Frydenvang, Jens ^[30]; Gasnault, Olivier ^[6]; Gibbons, Erin ^[31]; Gupta, Sanjeev ^[32]; Hausrath, Elisabeth M. ^[2]; Jacob, Xavier ^[33]; Kalucha, Hemani ^[28]; Kelly, Evan ^[20]; Knutsen, Elise ^[34]; Lanza, Nina ^[14]; Laserna, Javier ^[23]; Lasue, Jeremie ^[6]; Le Mouélic, Stéphane ^[5]; Leveille, Richard ^[31]; Lopez Reyes, Guillermo ^[35]; Lorenz, Ralph ^[11]; Manrique, Jose Antonio ^[35]; Martinez-Frias, Jesus ^[36]; McConnochie, Tim ^[37]; Melikechi, Noureddine ^[38]; Mimoun, David ^[39]; Montmessin, Franck ^[34]; Moros, Javier ^[23]; Murdoch, Naomi ^[39]; Pilleri, Paolo ^[6]; Pilorget, Cedric ^[19]; Pinet, Patrick ^[6]; Rapin, William ^[6]; Rull, Fernando ^[35]; Schröder, Susanne ^[40]; Shuster, David L. ^[41]; Smith, Rebecca J. ^[9]; Stott, Alexander E. ^[39]; Tarnas, Jesse ^[29]; Turenne, Nathalie ^[27]; Veneranda, Marco ^[35]; Vogt, David S. ^[40]; Weiss, Benjamin P. ^[8]; Willis, Peter ^[29]; Stack, Kathryn M. ^[29]; Williford, Kenneth H. ^[42]; Farley, Kenneth A. ^[28]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
3. Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.
4. Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Université de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon1, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université Jean Monnet Saint Etienne, CNRS, Villeurbanne, France.
5. Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géosciences, CNRS UMR 6112, Nantes Université, Université d’Angers, Université du Mans, Nantes, France.
6. Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie (IRAP), Université de Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, UPS, CNRS, CNES, Toulouse, France.
7. Laboratoire d’Etudes Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique, Observatoire de Paris-PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris Cité, Meudon, France.
8. Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
9. Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
10. Plancius Research, Severna Park, MD, USA.
11. Space Exploration Sector, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA.
12. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
13. U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
14. Space and Planetary Exploration Team, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
15. New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
16. Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
17. Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
18. University of Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Leioa, Bilbao, Spain.
19. Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France.
20. University of Hawai‘i, Honolulu, HI, USA.
21. RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden.
22. Center for Isotope Cosmochemistry and Geochronology, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA.
23. Universidad de Malaga, Malaga, Spain.
24. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
25. Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.
26. Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, CNRS, CEA, Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.
27. University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
28. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
29. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
30. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
31. McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
32. Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.
33. Institut de Mécanique des Fluides, Université de Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
34. Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, CNRS, Université Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Université Paris Saclay, Sorbonne Université, Guyancourt, France.
35. Research Group ERICA, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain.
36. Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid, Spain.
37. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
38. Department of Physics and Applied Physics, Kennedy College of Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, USA.
39. Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
40. Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institute of Optical Sensor Systems, Berlin, Germany.
41. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
42. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.; Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA, USA.

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.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); The Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO, Spain); The Swedish National Space Agency; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
• Contributing Organization: The SuperCam Team
• Grant/Contract Number: 89233218CNA000001
• OSTI ID: 2470465
• Journal Information: Science Advances, Journal Name: Science Advances Journal Issue: 34 Vol. 8; ISSN 2375-2548
• Publisher: AAAS
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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