T14 Perseverance at Jezero Crater—Characterizing an Ancient Crater Lake Basin on Mars

Sunday, 10 October 2021
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Portland Ballroom 256 (Hybrid Room)

1:2500 PHOTOGEOLOGIC MAPPING OF THE JEZERO CRATER FLOOR: DIVERSITY OF ORBITALLY-RESOLVED SURFACE TEXTURES AT AND AROUND THE PERSEVERANCE ROVER LANDING SITE

Paper number: T14-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:05 AM – 9:20 AM

Authors

Abstract

On February 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater, a Noachian-aged impact crater along the inner rim of the Isidis basin. The rover’s landing site—Octavia E. Butler Landing—is on the crater floor, approximately 2 km from the western delta, in a region dominated by surficial regolith that lies between topographically rough crater-retaining materials to the east, and an inlier of older deposits to the west. Prior to landing, Jezero crater had been mapped at a 1:5000 scale (Stack et al., 2020). Here, on behalf of 30 team members who contributed to this effort, we describe a new 1:2500 scale map that focused on the geologic materials that comprise the Jezero crater floor. These mapping efforts are part of an iterative process that integrates both orbital data and in situ observations made by the Perseverance rover to better understand the origin, emplacement mechanism, and relative age of Jezero crater floor units.

Mappable units were identified using a 25 cm/pixel High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) orthoimage base map and a 1 m/pixel HiRISE stereo digital terrain model. To differentiate units, the team focused on differences in tone, brightness, surface roughness, breaks in slope, topography, and surface texture. Units were reconciled across the quadrants to produce the final map. The greater detail afforded by this map contributes to the testing of hypotheses regarding age relationships between distinct crater floor units, their origin and emplacement mechanism, and potential chemical alteration. The current map provides a more detailed view of the variability of crater floor units and provides insight into the spatial and stratigraphic significance of these diverse textures. Together, these observations define crater floor units that represent both environmentally complex, and potentially stratigraphically complex emplacement. A better understanding of such issues plays a critical role in the larger goals of understanding the potential for habitability within the Jezero crater system and in providing detailed context for return samples.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 53, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2021AM-369122

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