Aqueously altered igneous rocks sampled on the floor of Jezero crater, Mars
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FarelyFinalb.pdf
Description
Accepted version
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5.33 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Bosak, Tanja
Date Issued
2022
Journal
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Citation
Bosak, Tanja. 2022. "Aqueously altered igneous rocks sampled on the floor of Jezero crater, Mars." Science, 377 (6614).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater, Mars, to investigate ancient lake and river deposits. We report observations of the crater floor, below the crater’s sedimentary delta, finding that the floor consists of igneous rocks altered by water. The lowest exposed unit, informally named Séítah, is a coarsely crystalline olivine-rich rock, which accumulated at the base of a magma body. Magnesium-iron carbonates along grain boundaries indicate reactions with carbon dioxide–rich water under water-poor conditions. Overlying Séítah is a unit informally named Máaz, which we interpret as lava flows or the chemical complement to Séítah in a layered igneous body. Voids in these rocks contain sulfates and perchlorates, likely introduced by later near-surface brine evaporation. Core samples of these rocks have been stored aboard Perseverance for potential return to Earth.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/SCIENCE.ABO2196
