Map co-author Vivian Sun said this was the first time she had seen an interactive planetary geology map of this caliber. “I think this is awesome. I really love it so much,” Sun said. ”When this map came out, I was very excited to tell my parents, but of course I wouldn’t ever be able to give them the files that were used to create this map because they wouldn’t know what to do with it, so I just sent them the link to this website.”Sun is a systems engineer with the science team for the Mars 2020 mission and said this map was created using orbital data to expand on previous maps of this Martian region by incorporating Jezero Crater’s surrounding plains and using a higher resolution. In addition to the crater’s famous river delta, she and Stack noticed some geologic features outside the crater that appear to be related to the crater’s volcanic floor, suggesting a geologic connection between the two, such as an ancient lava flow or other deposit.

Source: Daily Sun January 12, 2021 14:26 UTC