SEDIMENTOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY OF THE LOWER DELTA SEQUENCE, JEZERO CRATER, MARS

Katie M. Stack‐Morgan (1) , Sanjeev Gupta (2) , Michelle Tebolt (3) , Gwénaël Caravaca (4) , Libby R.W. Ives (1) , Patrick Russell (5) , David L. Shuster (6) , Amy J. Williams (7) , Sanna Holm-Alwmark (8) , Robert Barnes (2) , Jim F. Bell (9) , Olivier Beyssac (10) , Adrian Brown (11, 12) , David Flannery (13) , John Grotzinger (14) , Briony Horgan (15) , Joel A. Hurowitz (16) , Hemani Kalucha (14) , Oak A. Kanine (14) , Jorge Núñez (17) , Nicolas Randazzo (18) , Christina Seeger (14) , Justin I. Simon (19) , Michael M. Tice (20) , Rebecca M.E. Williams (21)

1 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
2 Department of Earth Science and Engineering [Imperial College London]
3 University of Texas at Austin [Austin]
4 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
5 EPSS - Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences [Los Angeles]
6 BGC - Berkeley Geochronology Center
7 UF|Geological - Department of Geological Sciences [Gainesville]
8 UCPH - University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet
9 ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]
10 IMPMC - Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie
11 NASA Headquarters
12 Plancius Research LLC
13 QUT - Queensland University of Technology [Brisbane]
14 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences [Pasadena]
15 Purdue University [West Lafayette]
16 Department of Geosciences [Stony Brook]
17 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
18 University of Alberta
19 JSC - NASA Johnson Space Center
20 Texas A&M University [College Station]
21 PSI - Planetary Science Institute [Tucson]

In April 2022, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover arrived at the base of the ancient delta in Jezero crater after completing the first year of its mission exploring and sampling aqueously altered igneous rocks of the present-day crater floor [1]. Perseverance then spent ~200 sols exploring the lower ~25 m of rock exposed within the eastern scarp of the Jezero delta [2], a sedimentary sequence informally named the ‘Shenandoah’ formation. This study describes the sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Shenandoah formation explored by Perseverance at two sections—'Cape Nukshak’ and ‘Hawksbill Gap’— including a description, interpretation, and depositional framework for the facies that comprise it.

Keywords: Mars; Mars 2020; Jezero crater; Sedimentology; stratigraphy; shenandoah formation; delta

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Earth Sciences; Planetology; Stratigraphy

Katie M. Stack‐Morgan, Sanjeev Gupta, Michelle Tebolt, Gwénaël Caravaca, Libby R.W. Ives, et al.. SEDIMENTOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY OF THE LOWER DELTA SEQUENCE, JEZERO CRATER, MARS. 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Mar 2023, The Woodlands (Texas), United States. pp.1422. ⟨hal-04052338⟩