Paleoclimate of Mars as captured by the stratigraphic record in Gale Crater

Abstract

A kilometers‐thick sedimentary sequence in Gale Crater exhibits stratigraphic changes in lithology that are consistent with transitions in aqueous and climatic conditions purported to be global in scale. The sequence is divided into two formations, where the Lower formation exhibits a net transition in mineralogy from clay/sulfate to sulfate/oxide assemblages and is separated from the overlying Upper formation by an erosional unconformity. Superposition and crater counts suggest strata in the Lower formation lie along the Noachian‐Hesperian time‐stratigraphic boundary, whereas beds in the Upper formation, which lack signatures indicative of clay minerals or sulfates, are thinner, more regularly spaced, and clearly younger. The observed stratigraphic trends are consistent with the rocks at Gale Crater recording a global transition from a climate favorable to clay mineral formation to one more favorable to forming sulfates and other salts.