Speaker: Dr. Emily Cardarelli
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Time: 12:00p – 1:00p
Abstract
The surface of Mars once hosted flowing liquid water and a warmer climate than today, with past water-rock interactions recorded by the carbonate deposits found on its surface. This work explores the depositional setting of the Margin unit, a major Mg-carbonate deposit near the fluvial inlet to Jezero crater, using ground-penetrating radar data collected by the NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover’s Radar Imager for Mars Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX) instrument. Soundings are reported from more than 35 m below ground, ~1.75 times deeper than other Jezero geologic units explored to date. We identify numerous subsurface features and submeter to hundred-meter scale layering across a ~6.1-km rover traverse. We infer that subsurface reflectors are consistent with buried fluvial features that have undergone multiple erosional-depositional episodes. This work extends the known history of aqueous activity within Jezero crater. It illuminates a well-preserved paleo landscape wherein a deltaic environment developed before the formation of the Jezero Western Delta, as early as the Noachian (~4.2 to 3.7 billion years ago).