HiRISE imaging of impact megabreccia and sub-meter aqueous strata in Holden Crater, Mars

Abstract

High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) images of Holden crater, Mars, resolve impact megabreccia unconformably overlain by sediments deposited during two Noachian-age phases of aqueous activity. A lighter-toned lower unit exhibiting phyllosilicates was deposited in a long-lived, quiescent distal alluvial or lacustrine setting. An overlying darker-toned and often blocky upper unit drapes the sequence and was emplaced during later high-magnitude flooding as an impounded Uzboi Vallis lake overtopped the crater rim. The stratigraphy provides the first geologic context for phyllosilicate deposition during persistent wet and perhaps habitable conditions on early Mars.