Wave ripples formed in ancient, ice-free lakes in Gale crater, Mars
- Creators
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Mondro, Claire A.1
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Fedo, Christopher M.2
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Grotzinger, John P.1
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Lamb, Michael P.1
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Gupta, Sanjeev3
- Dietrich, William E.4
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Banham, Steven3
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Weitz, Catherine M.5
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Gasda, Patrick6
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Edgar, Lauren A.7
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Rubin, David8
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Bryk, Alexander B.4
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Kite, Edwin S.9
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Caravaca, Gwénaël10
- Schieber, Juergen11
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Vasavada, Ashwin R.12
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1.
California Institute of Technology
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2.
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
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3.
Imperial College London
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4.
University of California, Berkeley
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5.
Planetary Science Institute
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6.
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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7.
United States Geological Survey
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8.
University of California, Santa Cruz
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9.
University of Chicago
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10.
Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology
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11.
Indiana University Bloomington
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12.
Jet Propulsion Lab
Abstract
Symmetrical wave ripples identified with NASA's Curiosity rover in ancient lake deposits at Gale crater provide a key paleoclimate constraint for early Mars: At the time of ripple formation, climate conditions must have supported ice-free liquid water on the surface of Mars. These features are the most definitive examples of wave ripples on another planet. The ripples occur in two stratigraphic intervals within the orbitally defined Layered Sulfate Unit: a thin but laterally extensive unit at the base of the Amapari member of the Mirador formation, and a sandstone lens within the Contigo member of the Mirador formation. In both locations, the ripples have an average wavelength of ~4.5 centimeters. Internal laminae and ripple morphology show an architecture common in wave-influenced environments where wind-generated surface gravity waves mobilize bottom sediment in oscillatory flows. Their presence suggests formation in a shallow-water (<2 meters) setting that was open to the atmosphere, which requires atmospheric conditions that allow stable surface water.
Copyright and License
© 2025 the Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial license 4.0 (CC BY-NC).
Acknowledgement
We thank the Mars Science Laboratory project engineering and science teams for their efforts that were vital in collecting the data presented. Mastcam mosaics were processed by the Mastcam team at Malin Space Science Systems.
Funding
Some of the research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Additional funding sources were provided by NASA MSL Participating Scientist Program award 80NSSC22K0731 (E.S.K.), NASA MSL Participating Scientist Program award NNH22OB34A (L.A.E.), UK Space Agency awards ST/S001492/1 and ST/X002373/1 (S.G.), NASA Mars Exploration Program award R-00727-24-0.2 (P.G.), French Space Agency CNES under convention CNES 180027 (G.C.), NASA MSL Participating Scientist Program under JPL Subcontract 1546404 (D.R.), and UK Space Agency awards ST/Y000137/1 and ST/S001506/1 (S.B.).
Contributions
Conceptualization: C.M.F., J.P.G., S.G., W.E.D., S.G., C.M.W., P.G., D.R., E.S.K., and J.S. Methodology: C.A.M., C.M.F., J.P.G., M.P.L., S.G., W.E.D., S.B., L.A.E., D.R., A.B.B., and G.C. Formal analysis: C.A.M., M.P.L., S.G., and S.B. Investigation: C.A.M., S.G., W.E.D., S.B., C.M.W., P.G., A.B.B., E.S.K., G.C., and J.S. Data curation: A.R.V. Visualization: C.A.M., J.P.G., M.P.L., S.G., and L.A.E. Funding acquisition: A.R.V. Project administration: A.R.V. Writing—original draft: C.A.M., C.M.F., J.P.G., and M.P.L. Writing—review and editing: C.A.M., C.M.F., J.P.G., M.P.L., S.G., S.B., L.A.E., and J.S.
Data Availability
All Curiosity data presented in this paper are archived in NASA’s Planetary Data System (https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/msl/). Codes for the modeling presented in the paper are available in the Supplementary Materials from (56). All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials.
Supplemental Material
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Additional details
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- 80NSSC22K0731
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NNH22OB34A
- United Kingdom Space Agency
- ST/S001492/1
- United Kingdom Space Agency
- ST/X002373/1
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- R-00727-24-0
- Centre National d'Études Spatiales
- CNES 180027
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- 1546404
- United Kingdom Space Agency
- ST/Y000137/1
- United Kingdom Space Agency
- ST/S001506/1
- Accepted
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2024-12-13Accepted
- Available
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2025-01-15Published
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
- Publication Status
- Published