Crater statistics on the dark‐toned, mafic floor unit in Jezero Crater, Mars

Shahrzad Stephanie; Kjartan Münster Kinch; Timothy Goudge; C. I. Fassett; Debra Needham; C. Quantin-Nataf; Cecillie P. Knudsen

doi:0.1029/2018GL081402

Crater statistics on the dark‐toned, mafic floor unit in Jezero Crater, Mars

Shahrzad Stephanie, Kjartan Münster Kinch, Timothy Goudge, C. I. Fassett, Debra Needham, C. Quantin-Nataf, Cecillie P. Knudsen

Astrophysics and Planetary Science

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Jezero crater is a ~45-km impact crater on the margin of Isidis basin on Mars. Jezero is the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission. The crater hosts a paleolake, and fluvio-lacustrine deposits formed in this lake remain accessible to exploration. A dark-toned deposit on the crater floor overlies light-toned carbonate-bearing deposits and has been interpreted as a lava flow. We determined the average thickness of this deposit at the margins to be ~13.0 ± 0.8 m. We analyzed the statistics of impact craters superposed on this deposit and estimated its model age as 2.6 ± 0.5 Ga in the Hartmann system, placing it most likely in the Early Amazonian. The error estimate here includes an estimate of the uncertainty associated with the crater counts. Acquisition, caching, and eventual return of a sample from this unit could provide an important calibration point for Mars crater chronology.

Original language	English
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
ISSN	0094-8276
DOIs	https://doi.org/0.1029/2018GL081402
Publication status	Published - 16 Mar 2019

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title = "Crater statistics on the dark‐toned, mafic floor unit in Jezero Crater, Mars",

abstract = "Jezero crater is a ~45-km impact crater on the margin of Isidis basin on Mars. Jezero is the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission. The crater hosts a paleolake, and fluvio-lacustrine deposits formed in this lake remain accessible to exploration. A dark-toned deposit on the crater floor overlies light-toned carbonate-bearing deposits and has been interpreted as a lava flow. We determined the average thickness of this deposit at the margins to be ~13.0 ± 0.8 m. We analyzed the statistics of impact craters superposed on this deposit and estimated its model age as 2.6 ± 0.5 Ga in the Hartmann system, placing it most likely in the Early Amazonian. The error estimate here includes an estimate of the uncertainty associated with the crater counts. Acquisition, caching, and eventual return of a sample from this unit could provide an important calibration point for Mars crater chronology.",

author = "Shahrzad Stephanie and Kinch, {Kjartan M{\"u}nster} and Timothy Goudge and Fassett, {C. I.} and Debra Needham and C. Quantin-Nataf and Knudsen, {Cecillie P.}",

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T1 - Crater statistics on the dark‐toned, mafic floor unit in Jezero Crater, Mars

AU - Stephanie, Shahrzad

AU - Kinch, Kjartan Münster

AU - Goudge, Timothy

AU - Fassett, C. I.

AU - Needham, Debra

AU - Quantin-Nataf, C.

AU - Knudsen, Cecillie P.

PY - 2019/3/16

Y1 - 2019/3/16

N2 - Jezero crater is a ~45-km impact crater on the margin of Isidis basin on Mars. Jezero is the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission. The crater hosts a paleolake, and fluvio-lacustrine deposits formed in this lake remain accessible to exploration. A dark-toned deposit on the crater floor overlies light-toned carbonate-bearing deposits and has been interpreted as a lava flow. We determined the average thickness of this deposit at the margins to be ~13.0 ± 0.8 m. We analyzed the statistics of impact craters superposed on this deposit and estimated its model age as 2.6 ± 0.5 Ga in the Hartmann system, placing it most likely in the Early Amazonian. The error estimate here includes an estimate of the uncertainty associated with the crater counts. Acquisition, caching, and eventual return of a sample from this unit could provide an important calibration point for Mars crater chronology.

AB - Jezero crater is a ~45-km impact crater on the margin of Isidis basin on Mars. Jezero is the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission. The crater hosts a paleolake, and fluvio-lacustrine deposits formed in this lake remain accessible to exploration. A dark-toned deposit on the crater floor overlies light-toned carbonate-bearing deposits and has been interpreted as a lava flow. We determined the average thickness of this deposit at the margins to be ~13.0 ± 0.8 m. We analyzed the statistics of impact craters superposed on this deposit and estimated its model age as 2.6 ± 0.5 Ga in the Hartmann system, placing it most likely in the Early Amazonian. The error estimate here includes an estimate of the uncertainty associated with the crater counts. Acquisition, caching, and eventual return of a sample from this unit could provide an important calibration point for Mars crater chronology.

U2 - 0.1029/2018GL081402

DO - 0.1029/2018GL081402

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0094-8276

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

ER -

Crater statistics on the dark‐toned, mafic floor unit in Jezero Crater, Mars

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