Perseverance rover reveals an ancient delta-lake system and flood deposits at Jezero crater, Mars

N Mangold; S Gupta; O Gasnault; G Dromart; J D Tarnas; S F Sholes; B Horgan; C Quantin-Nataf; A J Brown; S Le Mouélic; R A Yingst; J F Bell; O Beyssac; T Bosak; F Calef 3rd; B L Ehlmann; K A Farley; J P Grotzinger; K Hickman-Lewis; S Holm-Alwmark; L C Kah; J Martinez-Frias; S M McLennan; S Maurice; J I Nuñez; A M Ollila; P Pilleri; J W Rice Jr; M Rice; J I Simon; D L Shuster; K M Stack; V Z Sun; A H Treiman; B P Weiss; R C Wiens; A J Williams; N R Williams; K H Williford

doi:10.1126/science.abl4051

Perseverance rover reveals an ancient delta-lake system and flood deposits at Jezero crater, Mars

Science. 2021 Nov 5;374(6568):711-717. doi: 10.1126/science.abl4051. Epub 2021 Oct 7.

Authors

N Mangold^#¹, S Gupta^#², O Gasnault³, G Dromart⁴, J D Tarnas⁵, S F Sholes⁵, B Horgan⁶, C Quantin-Nataf⁴, A J Brown⁷, S Le Mouélic¹, R A Yingst⁸, J F Bell⁹, O Beyssac¹⁰, T Bosak¹¹, F Calef 3rd⁵, B L Ehlmann¹², K A Farley¹², J P Grotzinger¹², K Hickman-Lewis^{13

14}, S Holm-Alwmark^{15

16

17}, L C Kah¹⁸, J Martinez-Frias¹⁹, S M McLennan²⁰, S Maurice³, J I Nuñez²¹, A M Ollila²², P Pilleri³, J W Rice Jr⁹, M Rice²³, J I Simon²⁴, D L Shuster²⁵, K M Stack⁵, V Z Sun⁵, A H Treiman²⁶, B P Weiss^{5

11}, R C Wiens²², A J Williams²⁷, N R Williams⁵, K H Williford^{5

28}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratoire Planétologie et Géodynamique, Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques, Université Nantes, Université Angers, Unité Mixte de Recherche 6112, 44322 Nantes, France.
² Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
³ Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, Université de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 31400 Toulouse, France.
⁴ Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon-Terre Planètes Environnement, Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Ecole Normale Supérieure Lyon, Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques, 69622 Villeurbanne, France.
⁵ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
⁶ Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
⁷ Plancius Research, Severna Park, MD 21146, USA.
⁸ Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA.
⁹ School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
¹⁰ Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7590, Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques, Sorbonne Université, Museum National d'Histoires Naturelles, 75005 Paris, France.
¹¹ Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
¹² Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹³ Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London SW7 5BD, UK.
¹⁴ Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Bologna, I-40126 Bologna, Italy.
¹⁵ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁶ Department of Geology, Lund University, 22362 Lund, Sweden.
¹⁷ Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁸ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
¹⁹ Instituto de Geociencias, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Universidad Complutense Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
²⁰ Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
²¹ Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723, USA.
²² Space and Planetary Exploration Team, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
²³ Geology Department, College of Science and Engineering, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA.
²⁴ Center for Isotope Cosmochemistry and Geochronology, Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
²⁵ Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
²⁶ Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
²⁷ Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
²⁸ Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA 98104, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 34618548
DOI: 10.1126/science.abl4051

Abstract

Observations from orbital spacecraft have shown that Jezero crater on Mars contains a prominent fan-shaped body of sedimentary rock deposited at its western margin. The Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater in February 2021. We analyze images taken by the rover in the 3 months after landing. The fan has outcrop faces, which were invisible from orbit, that record the hydrological evolution of Jezero crater. We interpret the presence of inclined strata in these outcrops as evidence of deltas that advanced into a lake. In contrast, the uppermost fan strata are composed of boulder conglomerates, which imply deposition by episodic high-energy floods. This sedimentary succession indicates a transition from sustained hydrologic activity in a persistent lake environment to highly energetic short-duration fluvial flows.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't