The paleolacustrine evolution of Juventae Chasma and Maja Valles and its implications for the formation of interior layered deposits on Mars

Abstract

Juventae Chasma, Mars, is an approximately 7km deep basin located in close vicinity of Valles Marineris. It extends for ∼190km east-west and ∼270km north-south and exhibits several light-toned interior layered deposits (ILDs). These deposits form four large and distinctive light-toned mounds referred to as mound A, B, C, and D, from south to north. The deposits, with thicknesses up to several kilometers, consist dominantly of Mg-, Fe-rich anhydrous, or simple hydrated sulfate minerals at the base partly overlain by hydrated sulfates, suggesting precipitation as a result of evaporation processes related to chemical reactions of sulfate solutions with martian rocks. Results of experimentally produced sulfate solutions containing Mg, Na, K, Ca, Fe, and Al cations are used to simulate such evaporation processes in Juventae Chasma. Rock/fluid interactions were studied by leaching igneous mineral and rock samples including the martian meteorite Tissint with pH 1.3 sulfuric acid solutions. The resulting fluids were then chemically analyzed and numerically evaporated at 25 °C, 75 °C, and between 100° and 200 °C using the Geochemist's Workbenchۛ software. The resulting sulfate precipitations were similar to those sulfates observed in Juventae Chasma. This enabled the development of a paleolacustrine model of the Juventae basin including the evolution of the Maja Valles outflow channel system. The results indicate that sulfuric acid solutions were in contact with olivine minerals to form these sulfate-rich outcrops on the surface of Mars or olivine-bearing rocks with a mineral composition of a peridotite on or within the martian regolith at the time of the late Noachian or Hesperian. Simulated moderate to warm conditions (25° ̶ 200 °C) were used to explain the characteristic stratigraphy of multiply hydrated sulfate precipitation above anhydrous or less hydrated sulfates in lake water, with a water volume large enough to fill Juventae Chasma and to form Maja Valles.