Characteristics, Origins, and Biosignature Preservation Potential of Carbonate-Bearing Rocks Within and Outside of Jezero Crater.

ABSTRACT: Carbonate minerals have been detected in Jezero crater, an ancient lake basin that is the landing site of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, and within the regional olivine-bearing (ROB) unit in the Nili Fossae region surrounding this crater. It has been suggested that some carbonates in the margin fractured unit, a rock unit within Jezero crater, formed in a fluviolacustrine environment, which would be conducive to preservation of biosignatures from paleolake-inhabiting lifeforms. Here, we show that carbonate-bearing rocks within and outside of Jezero crater have the same range of visible-to-near-infrared carbonate absorption strengths, carbonate absorption band positions, thermal inertias, and morphologies. Thicknesses of exposed carbonate-bearing rock cross-sections in Jezero crater are

SUBMITTER: Tarnas JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8597593 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature