An olivine cumulate outcrop on the floor of Jezero crater, Mars
Yang Liu, Michael M. Tice, M. E. Schmidt, A. H. Treiman, T. V. Kizovski, J. A. Hurowitz, Abigail C. Allwood, Jesper Henneke, David A. K. Pedersen, S. J. VanBommel, Michael W. Jones, Abigail L. Knight, Brendan J. Orenstein, B. C. Clark, W. T. Elam, Christopher M. Heirwegh, Todd J. Barber, L. W. Beegle, Karim Benzerara, Sylvain Bernard, Olivier Beyssac, Tanja Bosak, A. J. Brown, Emily Cardarelli, David C. Catling, John R. Christian, E. A. Cloutis, B. A. Cohen, Scott Davidoff, Alberto González Fairén, Kenneth A. Farley, David Flannery, Adrian Galvin, J. P. Grotzinger, Sanjeev Gupta, James Hall, C. D. K. Herd, Keyron Hickman‐Lewis, Robert Hodyss, B. Horgan, J. R. Johnson, John Leif Jørgensen, Linda C. Kah, J. N. Maki, Lucia Mandon, N. Mangold, F. M. McCubbin, S. M. McLennan, Kelsey Moore, M. Nachon, Peter Nemere, Luke D. Nothdurft, Jorge I. Núñez, L. P. O’Neil, Cathy Quantin‐Nataf, V. Sautter, David L. Shuster, K. L. Siebach, Justin I. Simon, Kimberly Poppy Sinclair, K. M. Stack, A. Steele, Jesse Tarnas, Nicholas J. Tosca, Kyle Uckert, Arya Udry, Lawrence A. Wade, B. P. Weiss, R. C. Wiens, Kenneth H. Williford, María‐Paz Zorzano
Abstract
The geological units on the floor of Jezero crater, Mars, are part of a wider regional stratigraphy of olivine-rich rocks, which extends well beyond the crater. We investigated the petrology of olivine and carbonate-bearing rocks of the Séítah formation in the floor of Jezero. Using multispectral images and x-ray fluorescence data, acquired by the Perseverance rover, we performed a petrographic analysis of the Bastide and Brac outcrops within this unit. We found that these outcrops are composed of igneous rock, moderately altered by aqueous fluid. The igneous rocks are mainly made of coarse-grained olivine, similar to some martian meteorites. We interpret them as an olivine cumulate, formed by settling and enrichment of olivine through multistage cooling of a thick magma body.