1. Properties of the Nili Fossae Olivine-clay-carbonate lithology: orbital and in situ at S\'e\'itah
- Author
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Brown, Adrian J., Kah, Linda, Mandon, Lucia, Wiens, Roger, Pinet, Patrick, Clavé, Elise, Mouélic, Stéphane Le, Udry, Arya, Gasda, Patrick J., Royer, Clément, Hickman-Lewis11, Keyron, Cousin, Agnes, Simon, Justin I., Comellas14, Jade, Cloutis, Edward, Fouchet, Thierry, Fairén, Alberto G., Connell, Stephanie, Flannery, David, Horgan, Briony, Mayhew, Lisa, Treiman, Allan, Núñez, Jorge I., Wogsland, Brittan, Benzerara, Karim, Amundsen, Hans E. F., Quantin-Nataf, Cathy, Hand, Kevin P., Debaille, Vinciane, Essunfeld, Ari, Beck, Pierre, Tosca, Nicholas J., Madariaga, Juan M., and Ravanis, Eleni
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Physics - Geophysics - Abstract
We examine the observed properties of the Nili Fossae olivine-clay-carbonate lithology from orbital data and in situ by the Mars 2020 rover at the S\'e\'itah unit in Jezero crater, including: 1) composition (Liu, 2022) 2) grain size (Tice, 2022) 3) inferred viscosity (calculated based on geochemistry collected by SuperCam (Wiens, 2022)). Based on the low viscosity and distribution of the unit we postulate a flood lava origin for the olivine-clay-carbonate at S\'e\'itah. We include a new CRISM map of the clay 2.38 {\mu}m band and use in situ data to show that the clay in the olivine cumulate in the S\'e\'itah formation is consistent with talc or serpentine from Mars 2020 SuperCam LIBS and VISIR and MastCam-Z observations. We discuss two intertwining aspects of the history of the lithology: 1) the emplacement and properties of the cumulate layer within a lava lake, based on terrestrial analogs in the Pilbara, Western Australia, and using previously published models of flood lavas and lava lakes, and 2) the limited extent of post emplacement alteration, including clay and carbonate alteration (Clave, 2022; Mandon, 2022)., Comment: 34 pages, 15 figures
- Published
- 2022