Sedimentary Records from Another World: Exploring Gale crater basin with the Curiosity Rover

Dr. Kirsten Siebach from Rice University, Houston, Texas

Since landing on the floor of Gale crater in August 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover has explored over 300 m of basin-fill stratigraphy primarily consisting of fluvio-deltaic deposits and lacustrine mudstones. Curiosity’s findings have revolutionized our understanding of Mars: the planet had more igneous diversity than predicted, long-lived liquid water in rivers and lakes at the surface, environments that would have been habitable for life, multiple episodes of diagenetic fluids, and multiple cycles of crater fill and erosion. This talk will present the developing story of the history of the Gale crater basin, and the basin analysis work that has allowed us to begin to describe source-to-sink processes by separating effects from source rock diversity, sediment transport, and diagenetic influences for multiple sedimentary cycles.

Schedule

• 5:30pm – Social
• 6:00pm – Dinner
• 6:30pm – Lecture

Cost is $20 for dinner and the talk, and $2 for the talk only.  If you don’t pay online, the cost is $25 at the door while food lasts.

For more information on Dr. Siebach’s background and research, please visit her website: https://kirstensiebach.com/