CaltechAUTHORS
Published September 30, 2022 | Version public
Journal Article Metadata-only

An olivine cumulate outcrop on the floor of Jezero crater, Mars

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab
  • 2. ROR icon Texas A&M University
  • 3. ROR icon Brock University
  • 4. ROR icon Lunar and Planetary Institute
  • 5. ROR icon Stony Brook University
  • 6. ROR icon Technical University of Denmark
  • 7. ROR icon Washington University in St. Louis
  • 8. ROR icon Queensland University of Technology
  • 9. ROR icon Space Science Institute
  • 10. ROR icon University of Washington
  • 11. ROR icon Sorbonne University
  • 12. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 13. ROR icon University of Winnipeg
  • 14. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 15. ROR icon Centro de Astrobiología
  • 16. ROR icon Cornell University
  • 17. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 18. ROR icon Imperial College London
  • 19. ROR icon University of Alberta
  • 20. ROR icon Natural History Museum
  • 21. ROR icon University of Bologna
  • 22. ROR icon Purdue University West Lafayette
  • 23. ROR icon Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
  • 24. ROR icon University of Tennessee at Knoxville
  • 25. ROR icon Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes
  • 26. ROR icon Johnson Space Center
  • 27. ROR icon Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon : Terre, Planètes et Environnement
  • 28. ROR icon University of California, Berkeley
  • 29. ROR icon Rice University
  • 30. ROR icon Carnegie Institution for Science
  • 31. ROR icon University of Cambridge
  • 32. ROR icon Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • 33. ROR icon Blue Marble Space Institute of Science

Abstract

The geological units on the floor of Jezero crater, Mars, are part of a wider regional stratigraphy of olivine-rich rocks, which extends well beyond the crater. We investigated the petrology of olivine and carbonate-bearing rocks of the Séítah formation in the floor of Jezero. Using multispectral images and x-ray fluorescence data, acquired by the Perseverance rover, we performed a petrographic analysis of the Bastide and Brac outcrops within this unit. We found that these outcrops are composed of igneous rock, moderately altered by aqueous fluid. The igneous rocks are mainly made of coarse-grained olivine, similar to some martian meteorites. We interpret them as an olivine cumulate, formed by settling and enrichment of olivine through multistage cooling of a thick magma body.

Additional Information

We are grateful to the Mars 2020 team members who participated in tactical and strategic science operations. Detailed comments by K. Edgett are greatly appreciated. Y.L. thanks L. P. Keszthelyi for the discussion about Earth and Mars lava flows; N. Williams for providing the base maps used in Fig. 1, A and C; and J. Bell for providing the image used in Fig. 1D. The work described in this paper was partially carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, under a prime contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). Y.L., M.M.T., A.C.A., J.A.H., C.M.H., S.D., R.P.H., J.H., D.A.K.P., J.L.J., K.A.F., K.M.S., J.D.T., B.C.C., E.L.C., K.M., L.W.B., L.A.W., J.P.G., A.H.T., B.H.N.H., J.R.J., W.T.E., S.M.M., A.G., R.C.W., and K.U. were supported by NASA grant 80NM0018D0004 through JPL. J.R.J. was also supported by ASU subcontract 15-707. R.C.W. was also supported by NASA grant NNH13ZDA018O for Supercam to LANL. D.T.F. was supported by Australian Research Council grant DE210100205. E.A.C. was supported by Canadian Space Agency grant 19PACOI0 and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant RGPIN-2021-02995. C.D.K.H., T.V.K., and M.E.S. were supported by Canadian Space Agency M2020 Participating Scientist grants. A.U., S.J.V., B.A.C., M.N., D.L.S., J.I.S., K.L.S., T.Bo., and B.P.W. were supported by NASA Mars 2020 Participating Scientist grants. The work of K.B., S.B., O.B., L.M., N.M., C.M.Q.-N., and V.S. on Mars 2020 was supported by CNES. K.H.-L. was supported by a UK Space Agency Aurora Research Fellowship. T.Bo. was supported by the Simons Foundation Collaboration on the Origins of Life. S.G. was supported by the UK Space Agency and the Royal Society (grant SRF\R1\21000106). A.G.F. was supported by the European Research Council CoG #818602.

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
118387
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20221215-431170800.7

Funding

NASA/JPL/Caltech
80NM0018D0004
JPL
15-707
NASA
NNH13ZDA018O
Australian Research Council
DE210100205
Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
19PACOI0
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
RGPIN-2021-02995
Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES)
United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA)
Simons Foundation
Royal Society
SRF\R1\21000106
European Research Council (ERC)
818602

Dates

Created
2023-01-18
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2023-03-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)