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

¹ Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560, USA
² Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
³ Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
⁴ Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona 85719, USA
⁵ Department of Astronomy, Space Sciences Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
⁶ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA

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.

Key Words: Mars • stratigraphy • aqueous • megabreccia