The subsurface environment on Mars may hold clues to the origin of life, PSI Research Scientist Joseph Michalski said in a recent paper in Nature Geosciences. A large fraction of the life on Earth may exist as microbes deep underground on our home planet. The same could have been true in the past on Mars.
Michalski found that McLaughlin Crater, one of the deepest craters on Mars, contains evidence of clays and carbonates that probably formed in an alkaline, groundwater-fed lake.
A color image above draped onto digital topography shows McLaughlin Crater in a 3-D perspective, looking toward the east. On the floor of the crater are light-toned sedimentary deposits that contain alteration minerals. Overlying those layered rocks are debris flows that may have been generated from impact ejecta from Keren Crater, present on the south rim. McLaughin Crater once contained a lake that was likely fed by groundwater. Rapid deposition of sediments would have been favorable for preservation of organic materials if any were present.
A high-resolution image of layered rocks on the floor of McLaughlin Crater shows sedimentary rocks that contain spectroscopic evidence for minerals formed through interaction with water.
Credit: High Resolution Stereo Camera (HiRISE)/University of Arizona/JPL
