NASA reports that researchers analyzing spectrometer data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter, looking at the floor of McLaughlin Crate, found that the Martian crater may once have held a groundwater-fed lake.
The
Martian crater is 57 miles (92 kilometers) in diameter and 1.4 miles
(2.2 kilometers) deep. McLaughlin's depth apparently once allowed
underground water, which otherwise would have stayed hidden, to flow
into the crater's interior.
Layered, flat rocks at the bottom of the crater contain carbonate and
clay minerals that form in the presence of water. McLaughlin lacks large
inflow channels, and small channels originating within the crater wall
end near a level that could have marked the surface of a lake.
Together, these new observations suggest the formation of the carbonates
and clay in a groundwater-fed lake within the closed basin of the
crater. Some researchers propose the crater interior catching the water
and the underground zone contributing the water could have been wet
environments and potential habitats. The findings are published in
Sunday's online edition of Nature Geoscience.
[
NASA photo caption: This view of layered rocks on the floor of
McLaughlin Crater shows sedimentary rocks that contain spectroscopic
evidence for minerals formed through interaction with water. The High
Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded the image. Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona]
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