Northeast Syrtis

The yellow rectangle indicates the location of Northeast Syrtis Major. Syrtis Major is one of the largest volcanic provinces on Mars. The west part is the ancient and huge impact basin—Isidis, about 1500 km in diameter.

Northeast Syrtis is a region of Mars once considered by NASA as a landing site for the Mars 2020 rover mission.[1] This landing site failed in the competition with Jezero crater, another landing site dozens of kilometers away from Northeast Syrtis.[2] It is located in the northern hemisphere of Mars at coordinates 18°N,77°E in the northeastern part of the Syrtis Major volcanic province, within the ring structure of Isidis impact basin as well. This region contains diverse morphological features and minerals, indicating that water once flowed here.[3][4][5][6][7][8] It may be an ancient habitable environment; microbes could have developed and thrived here.

The layered terrain of Northeast Syrtis is unique on the surface of Mars, containing diverse aqueous minerals such as like clay, carbonate, serpentine and sulfate,[6][9] as well as igneous minerals such as olivine and high-calcium and low-calcium pyroxene. Clay minerals form in the interaction between water and rock[10] and sulfate minerals usually form through intense evaporation on Earth. Similar processes may happen on Mars forming these minerals, which strongly suggests a history of water and rock interaction. In addition, megabreccia, possibly the oldest material throughout this region (some blocks are over 100 m in diameter), could give an insight into the primary crust when Mars first formed.[5] The location is an ideal site for studying the timing and evolution of the surface processes of Mars, such as huge impact basin formation, fluvial activity (valley networks, small outflow channels), groundwater activity, history of glaciation, and volcanic activity.[3]

  1. ^ "Mars 2020 Rover". NASA. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  2. ^ Hautaluoma, Grey (19 November 2018). "NASA Announces Landing Site for Mars 2020 Rover". NASA. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  3. ^ a b Ehlmann, Bethany L.; Mustard, John F. (June 2012). "An in-situ record of major environmental transitions on early Mars at Northeast Syrtis Major". Geophysical Research Letters. 39 (11): n/a. Bibcode:2012GeoRL..3911202E. doi:10.1029/2012GL051594.
  4. ^ Mangold, N.; Ansan, V.; Baratoux, D.; Costard, F.; Dupeyrat, L.; Hiesinger, H.; Masson, Ph.; Neukum, G.; Pinet, P. (May 2008). "Identification of a new outflow channel on Mars in Syrtis Major Planum using HRSC/MEx data". Planetary and Space Science. 56 (7): 1030–1042. Bibcode:2008P&SS...56.1030M. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2008.01.011. ISSN 0032-0633.
  5. ^ a b Mustard, J. F.; Ehlmann, B. L.; Murchie, S. L.; Poulet, F.; Mangold, N.; Head, J. W.; Bibring, J.-P.; Roach, L. H. (12 December 2009). "Composition, Morphology, and Stratigraphy of Noachian Crust around the Isidis basin". Journal of Geophysical Research. 114 (7). Bibcode:2009JGRE..114.0D12M. doi:10.1029/2009JE003349. S2CID 17913229.
  6. ^ a b Ehlmann, Bethany L.; Mustard, John F.; Swayze, Gregg A.; Clark, Roger N.; Bishop, Janice L.; Poulet, Francois; Des Marais, David J.; Roach, Leah H.; Milliken, Ralph E.; Wray, James J.; Barnouin-Jha, Olivier; Murchie, Scott L. (23 October 2009). "Identification of hydrated silicate minerals on Mars using MRO-CRISM: Geologic context near Nili Fossae and implications for aqueous alteration" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research. 114 (53). Bibcode:2009JGRE..114.0D08E. doi:10.1029/2009JE003339.
  7. ^ Bramble, Michael S.; Mustard, John F.; Salvatore, Mark R. (September 2017). "The geological history of Northeast Syrtis Major, Mars". Icarus. 293: 66–93. Bibcode:2017Icar..293...66B. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.03.030. ISSN 0019-1035.
  8. ^ Ehlmann, Bethany L.; Mustard, John F. (June 2012). "An in-situ record of major environmental transitions on early Mars at Northeast Syrtis Major". Geophysical Research Letters. 39 (11): n/a. Bibcode:2012GeoRL..3911202E. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.656.7596. doi:10.1029/2012gl051594. ISSN 0094-8276. S2CID 3174336.
  9. ^ Murchie, Scott L.; Mustard, John F.; Ehlmann, Bethany L.; Milliken, Ralph E.; Bishop, Janice L.; McKeown, Nancy K.; Noe Dobrea, Eldar Z.; Seelos, Frank P.; Buczkowski, Debra L. (22 September 2009). "A synthesis of Martian aqueous mineralogy after 1 Mars year of observations from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research. 114 (E2). Bibcode:2009JGRE..114.0D06M. doi:10.1029/2009je003342. ISSN 0148-0227.
  10. ^ Poulet, F.; Bibring, J.-P.; Mustard, J. F.; Gendrin, A.; Mangold, N.; Langevin, Y.; Arvidson, R. E.; Gondet, B.; Gomez, C. (December 2005). "Phyllosilicates on Mars and implications for early martian climate". Nature. 438 (7068): 623–627. Bibcode:2005Natur.438..623P. doi:10.1038/nature04274. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 16319882. S2CID 7465822.