Water-Limited Hydrothermalism and Volcanic Resurfacing of Eridania Basin, Mars

Abstract

The Eridania Basin system, located in the martian southern highlands, may have hosted long-lived lacustrine hydrothermalism. Despite its multi-basin scale and suggested longevity that should pervasively alter the landscape, evidence for consistent compositional signatures of lacustrine hydrothermalism across varying spatial scales is poorly known. Here we synthesize orbital data sets (derived from the Gamma Ray Spectrometer, GRS; Thermal Emission Spectrometer, TES; and Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, CRISM) to characterize the composition of Eridania's landscape from regional to outcrop scales. The bulk geochemistry representing decimeter depths is broadly on par with mafic igneous compositions seen elsewhere on Mars. The landscape-scale mineralogy of Eridania suggests a compositional distinction between Eridania's northernmost basin and the remaining basins. Meanwhile, chloride mapping and analyses of amorphous silica and acid-altered clay phases at the outcrop scale both show that mineralogical evidence for hydrothermal alteration and putative lacustrine activity is broadly limited to the northernmost basin, and that most other amorphous silica in Eridania is consistent with low-to-minimal water/rock weathering. This suggests either limited regional hydrothermalism or extensive mafic resurfacing occurred in Eridania, the latter of which is consistent with previous studies. Our findings collectively suggest that Eridania underwent local crystal hydrothermal alteration, perhaps confined to the northernmost basin, while much of the remainder of the Eridania's basins either experienced low-temperature weathering or extensive resurfacing to at least meter scale depths by later volcanism. This supports prior inferences of spatially and temporally limited surface hydrology on Mars and extensive volcanic resurfacing of basins, as in the Gusev Crater.