Late‐stage aqueous activity at Gale crater, Mars, recorded by sediment fans eroded from Aeolis Mons
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Gale crater, the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover, and the mountain at its center, Aeolis Mons, hosts an extensive record of sedimentary rocks, which provide a window into the climate history of Mars. Curiosity has demonstrated that Gale hosted long-lived lakes early in its history, indicating warm, quiescent surface conditions, before transitioning into a period of heightened aridity. Recent investigations using orbital data have suggested that the surface of Mars was intermittently wet late in its history. However, an ongoing challenge is linking these orbital observations to on-ground investigations by rovers. Here we use combined orbital image and topographic data sets to investigate a series of sediment fans and related catchment regions within the wider Gale crater, and regional to Curiosity's exploration zone. These systems can be stratigraphically linked to the sedimentary rocks that Curiosity has investigated. We find that most of the sediment fans are likely alluvial fans, recording intermittent flow conditions, with deposition concentrated near the base of Aeolis Mons. The sediment fans are intermixed with landslide deposits and source canyons have been significantly backfilled. We find that these systems formed after regional geological units which Curiosity has shown to record periods of prolonged aridity. Our study demonstrates that intermittent surface water was likely to be present regionally with Gale crater during or after the exhumation of Aeolis Mons. Curiosity may be able to constrain the source and duration of these late-stage flow events as it ascends Aeolis Mons.
Date Issued
2025-03-01
Date Acceptance
2025-02-05
Citation
Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 2025, 130 (3)
ISSN
2169-9097
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets
Volume
130
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
10.1029/2024JE008808
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e2024JE008808
Date Publish Online
2025-03-18