Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle

Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle
Map of Margartifer Sinus quadrangle from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data. The highest elevations are red and the lowest are blue.
Coordinates15°00′S 22°30′W / 15°S 22.5°W / -15; -22.5
Image of the Margaritifer Sinus Quadrangle (MC-19). Most of the region contains heavily cratered highlands, marked with large expanses of chaotic terrain. In the northwestern part, the major rift zone of Valles Marineris connects with a broad canyon filled with chaotic terrain.

The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is also referred to as MC-19 (Mars Chart-19).[1] The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle covers the area from 0° to 45° west longitude and 0° to 30° south latitude on Mars. Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle contains Margaritifer Terra and parts of Xanthe Terra, Noachis Terra, Arabia Terra, and Meridiani Planum.

The name of this quadrangle means "pearl bay" after the pearl coast at Cape Comorin in South India.[2]

Main article: Classical albedo features on Mars
Main article: Planetary nomenclature § Mars

This quadrangle shows many signs of past water with evidence of lakes, deltas, ancient rivers, inverted channels, and chaos regions that released water.[3] Margaritifer Sinus contains some of the longest lake-chain systems on Mars, perhaps because of a wetter climate, more groundwater, or some of each factor. The Samara/Himera lake-chain system is about 1800 km long; the Parara/Loire valley network and lake-chain system is about 1100 km long.[4] A low area between Parana Valles and Loire Vallis is believed to have once held a lake.[5][6] The 154 km diameter Holden Crater also once held a lake.[7] Near Holden Crater is a graben, called Erythraea Fossa, that once held a chain of three lakes.[8]

This region contains abundant clay-bearing sediments of Noachian age. Spectral studies with CRISM showed Fe/Mg-phyllosilicates, a type of clay. Biological materials can be preserved in clay. It is believed that this clay was formed in near-neutral pH water. The clay was not mixed with sulfates which form under acid conditions. Life is probably more likely to form under neutral pH conditions.[9]

This region of Mars is famous because the Opportunity Rover landed there on January 25, 2004, at 1.94°S and 354.47°E (5.53° W). NASA declared the mission over in a press conference on February 13, 2019. This mission lasted almost 15 years.[10] Russia's Mars 6 crash-landed in Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle at 23.9 S and 19.42 W.

  1. ^ Davies, M.E.; Batson, R.M.; Wu, S.S.C. "Geodesy and Cartography" in Kieffer, H.H.; Jakosky, B.M.; Snyder, C.W.; Matthews, M.S., Eds. Mars. University of Arizona Press: Tucson, 1992.
  2. ^ Blunck, J. 1982. Mars and its Satellites. Exposition Press. Smithtown, N.Y.
  3. ^ Grotzinger, J. and R. Milliken (eds.) 2012. Sedimentary Geology of Mars. SEPM
  4. ^ Fassett, C. and J. Head III. 2008. Valley network-fed, open-basin lakes on Mars: Distribution and implications for Noachian surface and subsurface hydrology. Icarus: 198. 39-56. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2008.06.016
  5. ^ Goldspiel, J. and S. Squyres. 2000. Groundwater sapping and valley formation on Mars. Icarus. 89: 176-192. doi:10.1006/icar.2000.6465
  6. ^ Michael H. Carr (2006). The surface of Mars. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87201-0. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
  7. ^ Cabrol, N. and E. Grin (eds.). 2010. Lakes on Mars. Elsevier. NY.
  8. ^ Buhler, P. et al. 2011. Evidence for palelakes in Erythracea Fossa, Mars: Implications for an ancient hydrological cycle. Icarus. 213: 104–115.
  9. ^ Thomas, R., et al. 2017. EXTENSIVE EXPOSURE OF CLAY-BEARING NOACHIAN TERRAIN IN MARGARITIFER TERRA, MARS. Lunar and Planetary Science XLVIII (2017.). 1180.pdf
  10. ^ "NASA's Opportunity Rover Mission on Mars Comes to End". NASA/JPL. Retrieved 18 February 2019.