Barform deposits of the Carolyn Shoemaker formation, Gale crater, Mars
Author:
Cardenas Benjamin T.1, Grotzinger John P.1, Lamb Michael P.1, Lewis Kevin W.2, Fedo Christopher M.3, Bryk Alexander B.4, Dietrich William E.4, Stein Nathan1, Turner Madison2, Caravaca Gwénaël5
Affiliation:
1. 1 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, U.S.A. 2. 2 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, U.S.A. 3. 3 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, U.S.A. 4. 4 Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, U.S.A. 5. 5 UMR 5277 CNRS, UPS, CNES Institut de Recherche en Astrophyisique et Planétologie, Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, Toulouse, France
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The early environmental history of Mars is encoded in the planet's record of sedimentary rocks. Since 2012, the Curiosity rover has been ascending Mount Sharp, Gale crater's central mound, making detailed observations of sedimentary strata exposed there. The primary depositional setting represented by the rocks examined thus far has been a perennial lake, represented by the mudstones and sandstone lenses of the Murray formation. Here, we report on the sedimentology of outcrops examined in the Carolyn Shoemaker formation, which sits stratigraphically above the Murray formation. We interpret strata exposed in the Glasgow and Mercou members of the Carolyn Shoemaker formation to represent river bars in ancient alluvial and shoreline settings based on sedimentary structures, stratal geometries measured from photogrammetric data, and erosional morphology. The transition from a lacustrine to a fluvial depositional setting records the aggradation and progradation of coastal rivers into what was previously the extent of the Gale lake system. This may have occurred due to the shrinking of the lake over time due to climate-driven changes in the basin water balance, or local three-dimensionality in shoreline evolution, such as the formation of a new sedimentary lobe following a channel switch.
Publisher
Society for Sedimentary Geology
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