Sedimentary and stratigraphic observations at the Jezero western delta front using Perseverance cameras: initial constraints on palaeoenvironments

International audienceNASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is seeking signs of ancient life in Jezero crater and is collecting a cache of Martian rock and soil samples for planned return to Earth by a future mission. A key exploration target for the mission is a prominent sedimentary fan deposit at the western margin of Jezero crater that has been interpretated to be a river delta that built into an ancient lake basin during the Late Noachian-Early Hesperian epochs on Mars (~3.6-3.8 Ga) [1, 2]. Long distance observations of a remnant butte (informally named Kodiak) related to the western fan demonstrated that it comprised two distinct Gilbert-type delta units [2, 3].In her approach to the western fan, Perseverance drove alongside the east-facing scarp of the western fan and arrived at a key location called Three Forks - a setting off point for delta exploration - in April 2022. Images from the Mastcam-Z and SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager instrumentsprovide new views of the stratigraphy exposed in the erosional front of the western Jezero delta; in particular, showing sections of the delta previously not visible from long distance observations and at much higher resolution. These observations provide the first direct evidence of delta geometries in the main western fan deposit. Here, we report its stratigraphy and sedimentology, which providenew constraints on the nature of the fan deposits, and therefore paleoenvironmental implications