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NASA Perseverance Mars Rover Images Confirm Jezero Crater Is an Ancient Martian Lake - SciTechDaily

NASA Perseverance Mars Rover Images Confirm Jezero Crater Is an Ancient Martian Lake - SciTechDaily

NASA Perseverance Mars Rover Images Confirm Jezero Crater Is an Ancient Martian Lake - SciTechDaily
Oct 12, 2021 2 mins, 38 secs

Images from the Perseverance rover confirm that Jezero crater is an ancient Martian lake, researchers say.

This Mastcam-Z enhanced color photo mosaic shows a butte near Jezero crater informally dubbed “Kodiak” by the rover team.

The first scientific analysis of images taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover has now confirmed that Mars’ Jezero crater — which today is a dry, wind-eroded depression — was once a quiet lake, fed steadily by a small river some 3.7 billion years ago.

The images also reveal evidence that the crater endured flash floods.

The new analysis, published on October 7, 2021, in the journal Science, is based on images of the outcropping rocks inside the crater on its western side.

Satellites had previously shown that this outcrop, seen from above, resembled river deltas on Earth, where layers of sediment are deposited in the shape of a fan as the river feeds into a lake.

Perseverance’s new images, taken from inside the crater, confirm that this outcrop was indeed a river delta.

Based on the sedimentary layers in the outcrop, it appears that the river delta fed into a lake that was calm for much of its existence, until a dramatic shift in climate triggered episodic flooding at or toward the end of the lake’s history.

This composite image of the “Delta Scarp” in Mars’ Jezero Crater was generated using data from two imagers aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover.

Now that they have confirmed the crater was once a lake environment, they believe its sediments could hold traces of ancient aqueous life.

On February 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover landed on the floor of Jezero crater, a little more than a mile away from its western fan-shaped outcrop.

Scientists believe the 377-foot-wide (115-meter-wide) escarpment is a portion of the remnants of a fan-shaped deposit of sediments that resulted from the confluence between an ancient river and an ancient lake.

Once the rover downlinked images to Earth, NASA’s Perseverance science team processed and combined the images, and were able to observe distinct beds of sediment along Kodiak butte in surprisingly high resolution.

These images, together with those of Kodiak, confirm that the fan-shaped formation was indeed an ancient delta and that this delta fed into an ancient Martian lake.

When the researchers took a closer look at images of the main outcrop, they noticed large boulders and cobbles embedded in the youngest, topmost layers of the delta.

This stratification, the researchers say, indicates that for much of its existence, the ancient lake was filled by a gently flowing river.

Fine sediments — and possibly organic material — drifted down the river, and settled into a gradual, sloping delta.

However, the crater later experienced sudden flash floods that deposited large boulders onto the delta.

For more on this research, read NASA’s Mars Perseverance “Kodiak” Moment – Jezero Crater’s Lake Is More Complicated and Intriguing Than Thought.

Reference: “Perseverance rover reveals an ancient delta-lake system and flood deposits at Jezero crater, Mars” by N.

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