Brock University
Differentiating Igenous, secondary Alteration, and Dust Cover Contributions to Rocks at Jezero Crater to Infer its Integrated History and Past Habitability — Rock chemistries measured on Mars essentially represent their integrated histories and include contributions from
their igneous starting materials and possibly include sedimentary processes or secondary alteration. Lastly, airfall
dust variably covers rock surfaces. This proposal addresses three of these possible contributions (dust, igneous
precursor, and secondary alteration) to rock compositions analyzed by the mars 2020 rover in Jezero Crater by
micro-textural geochemical and mineralogical data. These studies will aid in achieving the Mars 2020 mission goals
of assessing the Jezero rocks for potential habitability for endolithic lithotrophs and to aid in sample selection.